Best practices for ports and shipping companies to build resilience against pandemics

Abstract

The maritime industry has experienced similar kinds of pandemic outbreaks (SARS and Avian Flu), but they still faltered in the face of COVID-19. This suggests that Maritime Supply Chains (MSCs) are still vulnerable to large scale disruptions such as pandemics. This research will develop a set of best practices for ports and shipping companies to improve their resilience towards pandemics. To do so, there is a need to first understand how they performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, this report has reviewed relevant literature about the measures taken by shipping companies and ports during COVID-19. Interviews were also conducted to provide more insights and alternative viewpoints. It is heartening to know that shipping companies are already practising or will practise SCRM and SCM because this will improve their resilience towards large scale disruptions such as the pandemic (Zineb et. al, 2017). However, pandemics might not be a risk that they are concerned about due to its low probability of occurrence and their good performance during COVID-19. It appears that shipping companies and ports prioritised their business continuity during COVID-19 which helped them to keep SC moving (UNCTAD, 2021). Ports imposed strict protocols to make it as safe as possible for their frontline maritime personnel. Shipping companies such as the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Maersk have also exercised care with regards to the safety of all of their employees during COVID-19. They have put in tremendous effort to make crew change possible. Unfortunately, some of their efforts fell through due to the lack of support from authorities. This is because in many countries, seafarers are not designated as key workers. However, I still recommend shipping companies to maintain a good relationship with authorities since their support is integral for crew change to even occur. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the crucial role that ports play in transporting essential cargoes and emphasised the need for ports to stay open throughout the pandemic. Unfortunately, this was not the case during COVID-19 because of the multiple cases of port closures in China which further exacerbated the SCs. We can also see that not all ports allowed crew change which is incredibly damaging to the mental and physical well-being of seafarers. Without seafarers, goods cannot flow across the SC. Instead of turning their backs on seafarers, ports should do more to protect seafarers during pandemics. I recommend ports and shipping companies to allow their office-based employees to work-from-home on certain days. This will allow their employees to require less time to adjust when they have to work-from-home for long periods during subsequent pandemics. Investing in port automation will be a good way for ports to reduce the manual labour required and be less affected by pandemics which targets the human component.