CBC: H1 ship management revenues down compared with previous half

Cyprus’ ship management revenues decreased in the first half of the year compared with H2 last year, though they recorded a 9% increase compared with the same period in 2022, according the Central Bank of Cyprus’ recently-published Ship Management Survey.

According to the survey, Cyprus’ ship management revenues decreased to €623m in the first half of 2023, compared with €648m in H2 of last year, making up 4.5% of the island’s semi-annual GDP as turnover.

Nevertheless, when compared with the first half of 2022, ship management revenues increased by 9%.

By country, Germany’s contribution (the main trading partner for the industry) decreased slightly from 41% in 2022H2 to 40% in 2023H1. Other notable share contributions during the same period include: Greece (17%, up from 16% in H2 of 2022), Switzerland (10%, up from 5%), Malta (stable at 5%), the USA (stable at 4%) and Singapore (stable at 4%).

In the first half of the year, 35% of ship management companies managed to generate revenues in the range of €2m - €30m each, while 23% of the companies managed to generate revenues in excess of €30m each, the CBC said.

The survey also looks at the level of concentration in the ship management industry, where the companies are ranked in terms of their revenue size. During 2023H1, the top 27% of the companies accounted for 94% of the industry’s revenues. As for the three types of management operations – Technical, Crew, Full – and their contributions, the survey found that the share of full management services increased slightly to 48.6% of the total amount of ship management revenues in 2023H1.

In contrast, crew-management services decreased slightly from 49% in 2022H2 to 47.6% of the revenues in 2023H1.

In terms of ship management expenses, these decreased to €604m (from €629m in the second half of 2022), after a series of increases since 2021H1.

Historically, the industry exhibits a relatively stable structure of expenses. The majority of these concern crew expenses, which accounted for 70% of the total amount in 2023H1. Most of these payments were directed to non-EU seafarers (49%). Administration expenses increased to 6% while ship management expenses (e.g. spare parts, lubricants, dry-docking, etc.) dropped to 24% of the total amount in 2023H1. 2 All data are subject to periodic revisions in accordance with the ECB and Eurostat guidelines.

The Ship Management Survey is conducted biannually by the Central Bank of Cyprus's Balance of Payments Section, which is part of the Statistics Department. The survey was launched in March 2009 and covers residents of Cyprus who provide ship management services to ship owning companies registered both in Cyprus and abroad.
The survey collects data from a representative sample on the financial transactions (revenues and expenses) carried out between resident ship management companies and non-residents of Cyprus.