A word on shipbroking Salaries and revenues

Dry Cargo Markets have been pretty crap for a long time and this means a drop in revenues. I know of at least two large shipbroking companies where only half of their brokers are currently breaking even. The strange thing is that although revenues are down salaries remain firm because finding good, hard working shipbrokers is difficult.

So gimme some numbers vs!

Well in London for example I would guess there are many brokers on around $100,000 pounds a year mark in salary and would be lucky to be bringing in $200,000 in revenue. When you take into account the extra costs a large brokering shop has in terms of rent, insurances, communicatrions, travel etc then profits are slim. In the USA we are looking at similar numbers.

In Singapore where shipbrokers still push for expat packages it is not uncommon to see people earning USD 30k per month (yes that's right) and only making USD 20k per month...so many brokers are infact costing the company money.

I am not sure how long this can last. These situations rely on 'fixing machines' to help prop up the rest of the office.

IMO a current day 'fixing machine' is fixing anything more than USD 500k in any given year. Anything above 300k is a star performer and anything below that is treading water.

All we need is a modest upswing and all this can change....we are at such a low base that a USD 5,000 per day change in the price of chartering a ship can increase revenues by 25 pct.

That's my take

VS

Market commentary

As many of you know I occasionally provide a bit of market commentary for various market participants and for news agencies like Reuters.

I am currently putting together a report for some clients summing up my thoughts for the remainder of the year.

Thought I would share a few of these observations

Overall the market in my opinion isnt going anywhere too fast or too soon. The biggest stumbling blocks for the shipping industry and pretty large ones. Namely the still large forward order book for new ships which is still outpacing ship scrappings 2 to 1...(in general although this varies a some when we look at specific sizes)

This will change but not just yet..2014 will see closer parity between ships coming in and ships going out!

The other issue is that much of the world is still an economic basket case. Sure Cyprus and Greece have millenia's of great contributions to the world - but in more ways than one it seems that the credit has run out.

And the economic problems in Spain have finally caught up with Barcelona and Real Madrid who have succumbed to the relentless efficiencies of the Germans giants Bayern and Dortmund...WOW 3 NIL at home.....And Messi isnt even Spanish!

Dont get me wrong I love Spain and even intend to live there for a few months next year...and in all honesty and with the greatest regard to my German friends - I dont really want to live there....hang on....good football, fast cars, schnitzel (is this Austrian?) and beer....

Actually a little known fact is that I once did live in Germany...In a place called ULM...between Stuttgart and Munich....3 of the greatest months of my life....but many moons ago...

Then theres America (USA OF) and China - out two superpowers. Mixed reports out of both in terms of the economies....but I reckon things will improve for both....

What does this all mean for the rest of 2013.....treading water...unfortunately...

Keep rocking

VS