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It is somewhat risky and costly to funnel all of that cash? Do you see any positives coming out of this mammoth

COVID-19 negative?

Indeed it is. The commercial industry is a bit different in

We are fortunate to have a growing portfolio of commer- terms of how crew are paid compared to the cruise line in- dustry. The commercial industry pays crew members via a cial clients and have signed a number of signi? cant clients combination of both cash onboard and a wire sent home. We over the last nine months including Maersk and V.Ships. We did a presentation once a couple of years back in Manila at think that this pandemic has ? nally shaken the industry to

Crew Connect. And I did a back of the envelope calculation. ask itself: ‘why do we need cash on board?’ (Plus), if you

If you look at the BIMCO estimate in terms of number of have 1,000, 2,000 or 5,000 crew members, you’re potentially ships out there, call it 50,000 commercial vessels, and you doing 1,000 to 5,000 wires a month, which are expensive, take an estimate in terms of how much cash typically is on dif? cult and inef? cient to administer. ShipMoney solves both sides of the equation: it’s a more cost-effective way in terms board at any one point in time, and how often cash is deliv- ered, we calculated that somewhere in the order of $4 to $6 of providing advances as opposed to cash. And it’s a much billion in cash being distributed in the commercial industry easier to administer and manage.

worldwide annually. And if you factor in the cost of deliver-

So relieving stress for shipowners is one thing, relieving ing CTM (cash to master) at say at 3%, it’s a big number. Not stress for seafarers quite another, particularly today. only is there the cost to deliver the cash, but there’s also the

I think that one of the impacts of this pandemic has been capital cost of maintaining that cash on board. And the de- a new appreciation for seafarers. The industry has realized livery of cash for crew payroll advances only represents one cost associated with paying commercial seafarers. It does how important seafarers are and is making concerted efforts not factor in fees and administrative burden associated with in terms of taking care of them. We’ve always believed that

ShipMoney is a crew welfare bene? t.

sending wire payments.

www.cimolaitechnology.com +39 049 940 4539

Portal Cranes Ship Lifting Platforms “Cimolift” Mobile Boat Hoists Transfer Systems www.marinelink.com 23

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