A PRELIMINARY REPORT

COURSEWORK
(WEEK 3)

UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH

SUBMITTED BY:
(PG) SUMEET SUBHASH SHEWALE

COURSE:
MSc in International Shipping

STUDENT ID:
10271273
 MY FUTURE CAREER IN INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING
Calvin Lloyd once said,” Nobody rises to low expectation” and international shipping as
my future career means the same for me. It is something what I always hoped for.
Shipping industry is one of the largest and widespread sectors at present. It contributes
90% of total world trade (Labs, 2008). We cannot imagine various nation economies
running stable without trade. No country is self sufficient and for it to develop and
prosper, it is interdependent on other countries for raw material, energy sources etc. Lun
et al. (2010) says that shipping industry has taken the trade from the world of isolated
areas to an integrated global countries. For example, China and India have been rapidly
expanding their export of industrial parts and products, and this resulted in a global
shortage of cargo vessels in 2004. Seeing this whole scenario a career in global shipping
sector fascinates me and pushes me forward to be a part of it.

Referring my past, I belonged from a family where my father is a Master in Commerce,

elder brother is a MBA in Marketing and mother who knows a lot about economics
through stock markets. My graduation in Marine Engineering helped me to gain and
understand about various operations in shipping line. So, all these things add up to my
strong points because I lived in an environment full of trade, finance and marketing.
Besides I have acquired good skills in leadership, respect towards seniors and
commitment in work. To be in shipping industry I never changed myself but I changed
the way I look at things around me. I referred every source possible to go in depth in this
area. Shipping industry is something which can give you profit with enough margin and
at times it can be high volatile to bring at standstill. Lun et al. (2010) mentions about
trends in shipping business are more focused on idea of economics economics of scale in
operations, development in network based management and technology support to
improve accuracy and performance. Muthiah (1999) suggests that globalization and
liberalization demands professionalism in world business. He says, many shipping firms
have realized in giving preference to professional managers in their trade expansion in
foreign counterparts.

According to me, when you get into commercial field, you need to have something
productive to lead the competition. Birla (2005) say about being creative and innovative
helps you outperform your competitors and keeps you one step ahead always. He says:

‘Creativity in the business world means exploring what ifs—taking time

to seek the connection between seemingly unrelated variables, to see other
Possibilities, and to look at the bigger picture when making decisions’

He defines innovation further as applied creavity.

With the financial crises in united states hits the shipping industry with global recession,
economies across the world got affected. (Mighty Students, 2010) adds, there is decrease
imports due decrease in consumers needs as a means to ease their consumption. It is
further stated that China being the top trader of United States, has enough stock for
industrial products like steel compared to decreasing demand of US in past few years.
Also it states regarding shooting oil prices results in costly shipping, less shipping
services and hence enabling companies to restrict their business to closer big consumer
market.

At present market is steadily gearing up showing improvement in trade sector. Mussa

(2009) says for this year global growth rate is projected to rise 3.7% compared to
previous year which is somewhat still below the potential growth rate of 4%. For
advanced countries it is projected 3% while for developing countries it is 4.7% (potential
growth rate 6%). It suggests, if global recovery continues as seen in forecast, world
commodity prices to build up further which will add a upward trend to overall rates of
consumer price inflation.

Current statistics showed by Kumar (2009) indicates that, the total world shipping
tonnage is registered in more than 150 nations with Panama leading at 173 million tons
followed by Liberia (79 million tons), Bahamas (47 million tons), Marshal Island (38
million tons) and Singapore (37 million tons). Other big registry countries include Hong
Kong, Greece, Malta, China and USA.

He adds, About 17.4% of the total world fleet tonnage is owned by Greece and closely
followed by Japan with 15.1% while Germany, China, Norway and USA collectively
own 25.8% of the world dead tonnage.

Despite being global and diverse in nature, the ocean transportation cost still remains
very affordable with the lowest ton per km cost compared to other mode of
transportation. The shipping cost for consumer goods contributes a fairly small amount of
the final price of the product (Kumar 2009).

A leading recruiting company Faststream Recruitment Group (2009) has posted their
review on commercial shipping employment considering roles such as chartering
managers, shipbrokers, claim executives, analyst dutring Oct 2008 to May 2009. The
picture was not that negative what was expected in the midst of recession and collapse in
vessel earning. It states, companies continue to make critical hires and jobs are in place
for commercial people. And this is the same with technical sector also.

Kumar (2009) adds, marine pollution has much decreased compared to other modes of
transport. The ratio of number of oil spillage to increase in trade flow has gone down
owing to adoption of latest technology and stricter regulatory rules. Still marine pollution
contributes 10% less than other modes of pollution.

There is a lot to look for in marine sector, so what I need to do is focusing more on the
commercial aspect of shipping related to research, market study and keeping myself
updated with latest trend in this internationalized industry. Analysis is major factor which
will help me with my case studies and predicting the trend in shipping and logistics
sector.
To conclude with my report, I need to say is shipping industry has given us a chance to
look internally and refine its operative strategies and prepare for future crisis. So my
interest and dedication towards career in international shipping reminds me one thing,
‘A man can do what a man can do, but if he does that each day he can
Sleep at night and do it again the next day’
-Albert Schweitzer
References:

1. Birla, M., (2005) FedEx Delivers: How The World’s Leading Shipping
CompanyKeeps Innovating And Outperforming The Competition. New Jersey:
Hoboken.

2. Faststream Recruitment Group (2009) Commercial Shipping Employment Market

Review [Online]. Available from:
http://gcaptain.com/forum/maritime-employment/1915-faststream-recruitments-
commercial-shipping-employment-market-review.html
[Accessed 10th October 2010]

3. Kumar, A., (2009) Shipping Industry: An overview, current situation and future
outlook [Online]. Available from: http://www.frost.com/srch/catalog-search.do?
queryText=shipping+industry%3A+an+overview
%2C+current+situation+and+outlook [Accessed 10th October 2010]

4. Labs, S. St., (2008) Shipping and Shipbuilding: shipping industry, shipping sector
[online]. Available from:
http://www.economywatch.com/world-industries/shipping-industry.html
[Accessed 10th October 2010]

5. Lun, Y.H.V., Lai, K.-H., Cheng, T.C.E., (2010) Shipping And Logistics
Management [Online].
Availablefrom: http://www.ebook3000.com/plus/search.php?
kwtype=0&keyword=shipping+and+logistics&imageField2.x=0&imageField2.y=
0&searchtype=titlekeyword

6. Mighty Students (2010) Future of Shipping Industry [Online]. Available from:

http://www.mightystudents.com/essay/Future.of.Shipping.133329 [Accessed 10th
October 2010]

7. Mussa, M., (2009) World Recession and Recovery: A V or an L? [Online].

Available from: www.iie.com/publications/papers/mussa0409.pdf [Accessed 10th
October 2010]

8. Muthiah, K., (1999) Logistics Management And World Sea Bourne Trade.
Mumbai: Himalaya Publishing House