Marine Emolyment Resource Debuts

Last month marked the debut of one of the marine industry’s more exciting new e-commerce offerings — www.MaritimeJobs.com — which, as its name suggests, is positioned to provide all marine industry companies with a venue to find and hire the best talent available.

As the world, and particularly the U.S., economy continues to surge, it has become increasingly difficult for companies to hire and retain talented individuals, both onboard and shoreside. Couple with that the continued movement of younger workers from traditional industrial positions to the technology sector, and the result is a projected worker shortage, which is already starting to take hold. Particularly hard hit have been the vessel owners and operators, which could in the next decade face a worker crisis as it is becoming increasingly difficult to find individuals willing to endure the rigors and time away inherent in this work. Ship and boatyards, too, must balance work force during wide ranging business cycles, often resulting in the layoff and rehire of a good portion of the work force. Increasingly, particularly during the latest upswing in Gulf of Mexico business, facilities are finding it difficult to find, let alone hire back, qualified workers.

Marine companies around the world, including those in the:

• ship and boat owners and operators; • ship and boat builders and repairers; • marine equipment service & supply; • naval architects and marine engineers; • financial and insurance sector;

will find MaritimeJobs’ seamless structure and ease-of-use attractive in searching for employees, ranging from ship and boat crew and officers, to shoreside employees, from entry level to executive level.

Spectec Acquired by Station 12 SpecTec's parent company Visma ASA has signed an agreement to sell its marine division — SpecTec Group — to Netherlands-based Station 12 for about $85 million. Station 12, which is 65 percent owned by Dutch telecommunications operator KPN and 35 percent by Australian telecommunications operator Telstra, is a world market leader in mobile satellite communications.

SpecTec is a leading supplier of management software to the shipping industry. In 1999, the company increased net sales by 19 percent to about $23 million, while operating profits increased by 83 percent to $3 million.

SpecTec owns an estimated 40 percent of the market and its systems are installed on some 6-7,000 vessels world-wide.