Regulation and overtonnaging are major challenges for shipping

Richard Greiner, of Moore Stephens, looks at some of the major challenges facing shipping in 2015 and explains why private equity funding could have a big say in the industry’s immediate future

Shipping confidence started 2014 on a six-year high and ended it on a two-year low. It is difficult to predict with any certainty what the next 12 months will bring, beyond further uncertainty. To paraphrase an old adage, shipping goes into 2015 needing to accept the things it cannot change, to change the things it can change and to make sure it understands the difference between the two. Top of the list of things which shipping cannot change is the relentless march of regulation. In 2015 this will assume still more onerous proportions with the inception of new regulations governing Emissions Control Areas and a further step towards ratification of the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention.