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October 2013 www.sname.org/sname/mt experience disappears when unemployed shipping o cers, pumpmen, bosuns, and engineers?all with their good experi- ence?seek other employment. It takes approximately eight years to create an experienced chief engineer, which is the same time as for a brain surgeon. Technical departments, and of course newbuilding departments, are reduced to a bare minimum and shipping compe- tence also disappears in these important disciplines. At the shipyards, little devel- opment work or plans for exciting new designs take place. Who knows if such innovative ships will be ordered anyway? Its survival by austerity. I have 40 years experience in shipping, 30 of them in executive positions. It is clear to me that shipping is not managed in an optimal way when we accept the eternal boom and bust scenario caused by over- ordering of tonnage in good times, which results in bad times. We look for good ship- ping leadership and cannot see much of it. Shipping company executives look a bit guilty when confronted, but claim that they can only order ships when they have money and that is in good times. In bad times they have no money and cannot get any nanc- ing to order ships when they are cheap. Is there a good solution to have shipping perform like more normal? industries? The central role of shipping Next to God, the good future of the State depends on Shipping,? said the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus some 400 years ago. He was a well-traveled man, mostly command- ing his armies in war and depending on ships, and he was a very experienced leader. And he was right. Trading between nations creates wealth and is a good reason not to go to war and instead trade in goods and commodities, which are transported in ships. Hundreds of millions of starving people in Southeast Asia have entered the industrialized world and have developed their economies by import- ing raw materials, via ships, and by shipping competitively-priced manufactured goods to Europe and the United States. In the process, they have educated and trained their work- force and earned good money, and we in the west have gotten access to low-priced prod- ucts. All thanks to e cient and competitive sea transportation. Shipping e ciency is much more impor- tant to the world than the fortunes of the ship owner. Shipping slumps are caused by a combi- nation of a poor global economy with lower New look. Same durable, high quality products.sales@kobelt.com s www.kobelt.com s +1 (604) 572-3935 CONTROLS BRAKES PUSH-PULLSTEERING Test Kobelt products at the following shows: /v??v?}vo t}?l}? ^Z}Á K?}? õrííU îìíï EÁ K?ovU > U h ^ &?X >µ?o /v??v?}vo }? ^Z}Á K?X ïí r E}ÀX ðU îìíï &?X >µ?oU &