International accountant and shipping consultant Moore Stephens says total annual operating costs in the shipping industry fell by an average of 0.8% in 2014. This compares with the 0.3% average fall in costs recorded for 2013. All categories of expenditure were down on those for the previous 12-month period, confirming that ship owners and operators continued to manage costs sensibly and to watch their cash carefully in 2014.

The findings are set out in OpCost 2015 (www.opcostonline.com), Moore Stephens’ unique ship operating costs benchmarking tool, which reveals that total operating costs for the tanker, bulker and container ship sectors were all down in 2014, the financial year covered by the study. On a year-on-year basis, the tanker index was down by 2 points, or 1.1%, while the bulker index fell by one point, or 0.6%. The container ship index, meanwhile, was down by 2 points, or 1.2%. The corresponding figures in last year’s OpCost study showed a rise of 2 points in the tanker index, and falls of 2 points in the bulker and container ship indices.

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