Shipping Agency

Ship Agency
Courtesy: Shipping Network Magazine, Mr Phil Parry, Spinnaker Consulting Ship agency has changed. Ship agents are now worldwide businesses providing sophisticated global services to very demanding clients. The biggest employ thousands of staff who specialise in particular commodities - tankers, cruise, liner, naval, gas, dry bulk, etc - and particular service sectors such as crewing, spare parts, P&amp;I, terminal services … and much more.

Job Titles
Every job you can think of in shipping from:


 * Sales
 * Engineering
 * Claims handler
 * Shipbroker
 * Terminal services
 * Marine superintendent
 * Operations
 * Finance and IT.

What's it all about?
Most simply, a port agent is the 24/7 local representative of its port user clients - shipowners, charterers and cargo shippers or receivers - for a vessel's port call from the moment it arrives until the moment it sails.

The emphasis is on letting the client get on with what it does best while producing cost savings, streamlining accounting and administration, streamlining processes, providing up-to-date information and excellent communication, all the while providing a single point of contact.

Agents have local knowledge and local contacts and handle a huge variety of tasks, both simple and very complex, including:


 * Disbursement accounts
 * Cargo documentation, statements of facts, laytime/demurrage
 * Handling funds, claims and P&amp;I correspondency
 * Customs and immigration formalities
 * Liaison with ports, terminals and stevedores
 * Cargo management, forwarding and logistics
 * Liner agency and representation
 * Crew changes and repatriation
 * Supplying provisions, water, spares and fuel
 * Removing ships' waste
 * Arranging repairs
 * Ship to ship transfer
 * Offshore and terminal support services ………….and much more.

What's new?
Outsourcing, technology and mergers: ship agency has changes dramatically in the last few years. Leading agency groups are now massive businesses with thousands of staff all over the world and they represent large clients who outsource to them all aspects of their global ship-to-shore interface. They describe themselves therefore in ways such as "marine services providers" or "specialists in shipping, logistics and marine services". This large-scale outsourcing seems to be the way forward for the biggest companies giving them growth and long term stability.

Added to which, large agency groups are getting larger, through mergers and acquisitions, while agency networks - an alternative business model - are also growing, e.g. Multiport and SS.

Major clients who outsource their work to agencies demand accurate information. Agencies must provide sophisticated, often web-based, applications, which communicate the status of every aspect of their clients' business in real-time and which measure and analyse costs and operational data to a very high degree of details.

The Players
The major agents are Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), Gulf Agency Co (GAC), Barwil and the Multiport network. Between them, these four account for around 14% of all global port calls. The remaining 86% is handling by a variety of local and regional companies, including the SS group and India's JM Baxi.

Who's employing?
Who isn't!

What do I need?
There are such a variety of jobs within an agency that there are too many answers to this question to fit on one page. Given that you are reading this, the chances are that you are considering studying for ICS qualifications or have passed them. They provide an excellent understanding of agency and many of the major agency companies put their staff through them.

What can I earn?
Again there are so many jobs in agency groups that there is no short answer to this question. Because there are now some very large agency groups, benefits packages, including expatriate packages, are in line with similarly sized organisations in other sectors. And, of course, this decade in the shipping industry has been enjoying its most successful period for decades, so agency groups are competing with other shipping employers for staff.

The result? Agency salaries are very competitive.

Travel?
Lots of it

Where?
Worldwide, with the very real opportunity to move countries several times within the same company.

Training
On the job or ICS TutorShip courses or Australian Maritime College.

Links
List of Shipping Companies and Agents in the Arab World

List of Shipping Agents and Forwarders in Lebanon