As one of the foremost voices in the ship management industry, Captain Sanjeev Verma of Hong Kong's Landbridge Ship Management is leading calls for greater acceptance of technology among his peers. In conversation with Andy Probert, he also spoke about the impact a potential future shortage of seafarers could have.
ATthe helm of a young fleet of Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC), Captain Sanjeev Verma has a unique 360-degree view of the ship management industry's changing tides, times and trends emerging post-Covid.
Not only has he seen the impact up close and personal on crews and onshore staff as Managing Director of Hong Kong's Landbridge Ship Management, but he also has an ear tuned in to the membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS). The ICS, founded in 1911, is the only internationally recognised professional body in the commercial maritime arena and represents shipbrokers, ship managers and agents worldwide. It has 26 branches and 4,000 individual Members and Fellows.
As a member of the ICS Hong Kong branch, Capt Verma said: “One of the few positives to emerge from the pandemic's impact
is the greater inter-connectivity between people, through technology. No longer are we trying to juggle flights and schedules to speak to people. Jumping on Zoom or Teams is quick, effective and cost saving.
“Webinars have become the main mode of contact for our industry in reaching diverse audiences and helping enhance their knowledge. One of my tasks at ICS HK is to promote that shipping knowledge worldwide.”
A recent Inside Marine-supported ICS webinar about the forthcoming changes to tanker inspections by the Oil Companies
International Marine Forum (OCIMF) saw 300-plus attendees listen in.
“It sought to clarify a shift in the vessel inspection regime that has run for the last 25 years,” he said. “The OCIMF is overhauling the complete system to bring more of the human factor element into their inspection process.”
The webinar brought together ship owners, operators, crews, charterers and commercial operators, the OCIMF regulator and the project manager overseeing this new regime. “Overall, it was very successful in raising maximum awareness,” Capt Verma
explained. “Many sought to clarify doubts and listen to industry leaders about the new system. Certainly, we will host more webinars on different topics affecting our industry.”
Raising the bar
Since its inception in 2018, Landbridge has been led by Capt Verma, a Master Mariner with 27 years in the shipping industry. Landbridge is part of the Landbridge Group, a private multinational group of companies from Shandong Province, China.
Under his tenure, Landbridge has asserted itself as one with an enviable reputation, with strong business links to oil majors
and traders. With 20 shore-based staff, it oversees a pool of 300 international seafarers to maintain the fleet of five 310,000 DWT VLCC tankers. These are chartered to global oil majors, traders and pool operators on either long-term or spot contracts, and there have been no accidents or spills to date.
Capt Verma said Landbridge was intent on expanding its platform and transitioning from an in-house ship manager to a third–party manager: “We are in talks with other ship owners interested in having us manage their assets. Our hope is to raise the bar and scale up to manage ships of different types.”
In the last year, a number of oil majors audited the company's processes and procedures. “They assessed any gaps in our procedures compared to industry best practices and how Landbridge could improve,” explained Capt Verma. “It was demonstrated how far the company has come in a short time.”
Facing up to industry challenges
Capt Verma commented that the ship management industry was well aware of the challenges posed by environmental pressures and the need to drive down greenhouse gas emissions: “However, we, the managers and owners, cannot overcome these challenges alone,” he said. “I am glad more stakeholders, including shipyards, charterers and regulators, are now discussing these challenges.”
One change coming will be monitoring and rating a ship's emissions, a significant ‘cross-benching’ for the industry. “We will be able to categorise a ship by its performance,” Capt Verma continued. “As a comparison, look at the household electric products industry. For many years, you have been able to choose a product based on the ratings based on its gas emissions.
“The shipping industry has not had that benchmarking. But this carbon-index rating from 2026 will have sweeping changes.”
A lack of crew manpower has heavily impacted the industry, made worse by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine – two countries that account for about 15% of seafarers globally. “As we don't see an ending to the war in the short-term,” said Capt Verma, “we are looking at a massive shortage of qualified seafarers.”
LANDBRIDGE SHIP MANAGEMENT I PROFILE
LANDBRIDGE SHIP MANAGEMENT I PROFILE
Additionally, the prolonged lockdown in mainland China, another big source of manpower, is having an impact, according to Capt Verma: “It has also affected the intake of future seafarers, given the negative sentiments of other seafarers about the quarantine restrictions they encountered.
“Looking to the future, a lack of qualified seafarers could drive u p the cost of manpower. When that happens in poor market conditions, it will impact a ship’s running costs. Everyone could begin to chase the same pool of officers and seafarers to recruit.
“Those who are not so well-trained could get into the system to replace the vacuum created by this shortage. This could affect the safety of our industry. A tighter regime of checks and balances on potential staff is very much required in certain countries to give greater assurance.”
Changing mindsets
As a young company, Landbridge has established a shrewd IT infrastructure with a cloud-based platform, enabling its employees to work worldwide and seamlessly connect with its ships.
“When I look at us and compare with other ship management companies, yes, we are young and dynamic, but our IT-driven strategy in daily operations helps to heighten our transparency,” Capt Verma said. “That puts us in a different position from market leaders with traditional legacy systems.
“We use data and analysis to reflect and make decisions based on those findings. We believe technology can help you run your fleets smartly. The industry talks about emissions and changing fuel types. But why not talk about improving technology and a machine's efficiency?
“Crunch the datasets and improve the performance, rather than expending heavy investment into changing fuels or engines. A small
percentage could have great positives in optimising a ship’s performance and reduce carbon emissions.”
He concluded: “We are reaching a point where we need to change people's mindsets: technology is not an enemy to our industry; it can help change your operations. And change for the better is an improvement for all.” n
