Julian Wilkinson News

International accountant and shipping consultant Moore Stephens says the banks will exert more control over the shipping industry in 2013. It also expects vessel values to fall further, and the cost of regulatory compliance to increase. Moore Stephens partner Julian Wilkinson says, “For shipping in 2012, it was not so much a case of ‘Crisis, What Crisis?’ as ‘Crisis, Which Crisis?’ This year will be equally challenging. Operating costs are going to go up. Like a commuter facing another increase in rail fares…

SHIPPING is going to need a great deal of resilience to meet the challenges of the next twelve months, according to international accountant and shipping adviser, Moore Stephens. But, for those who can secure funding, there have been few better times to invest. Julian Wilkinson, head of the Moore Stephens Shipping Industry Group, says, “More than ever, shipping will be an industry for long-term players. Operating costs increased in 2011, while the global economic climate deteriorated at a rate outpaced only by the growth of sovereign debt in some eurozone countries. “The markets are languishing, and are likely to fall further. We have seen how, for the first time in a long while, some of the big tanker-owning companies have come under financial pressure.

Accountant and shipping industry adviser Moore Stephens says the shipping sector faces a challenging year in 2011, with freight rates under pressure, crew costs continuing to rise and the banks closely monitoring the future viability of poor performers. Writing in the latest issue of Bottom Line, the firm’s shipping newsletter, Julian Wilkinson, head of the Moore Stephens Shipping Industry Group, said, “Last year should have been the year that future generations would use to frighten their children into believing that, unless they ate their greens, they would suffer the privations that were visited upon shipping. The truth was somewhat different.

Shipping accountant Moore Stephens said that, despite the current economic downturn, shipping is still a good business to be in, and that resourceful investors will find opportunities to expand, or to get back into shipping, over the next twelve months. Julian Wilkinson, head of the Moore Stephens shipping team, said, “Shipping enters 2009 with at least one certainty – the good times are over for now. The easy money has dried up, the old ships have been scrapped or are laid up and there are no prospects of markets going up any time soon. But, in a cyclical industry, sensible players make money whichever way the market moves. Writing in the firm’s Bottom Line newsletter…