Shipping should do more to manage exposure to risk

BY its nature, operating merchant ships involves taking risks. The cynic might say shipowners risk their money while their crews risk their lives. The two sorts of risks are of course intertwined. And the analytical skills of an accountant are useful in assessing risk.

So we should pay attention to the third annual Shipping Risk Survey from international accountant and shipping adviser Moore Stephens, as long as we remember what risk feels like in a Force 11 off the Cape of Good Hope with the deck cargo shifting.

Moore Stephens says that the effective management of risk within the industry has improved slightly over the past 12 months. But shipping, it adds, still needs to up its game in terms of managing its exposure to risk, which is increasing and changing in nature, not least in terms of the threat posed by cybersecurity.