Delivery of Four New Tankers Expands Mumbai Crews

Mumbai-based ship management company MMS Maritime India announced today it is to begin a major recruitment drive for Indian seafarers, after its parent company, the Japanese ship owner Meiji Shipping Group, unveiled an expansion of its tanker fleet.

MMSI provides crew to Meiji’s oil and gas tanker division which numbers 19 ships. MMSI CEO Dr Sanjay Bhavnani said he expected four new tankers to be delivered to Meiji by the beginning of 2016. The 28,000 DWT medium range (MR) vessels are presently under construction at a Japanese shipyard.

“MMSI currently employs around 300 crew and we are looking to recruit a further 80-90 seafarers from India to help man these four new ships,” he said. “The positions we are seeking to fill will be across the full spectrum of roles from officers and masters to chief engineers. A number of senior positions will be filled from our existing workforce to ensure the ships have the right levels of experience and expertise. MMSI has built its reputation on having some of the best trained and most motivated seafarers in the industry. We are immensely proud to say we have one of the highest retention rates of officers and ratings in the world at more than 90%. We will therefore be carefully selecting candidates to ensure they are of the highest caliber to maintain our rigorous standards.”

Dr Bhavnani, an experienced former ships chief engineer, said the new ships would support Meiji’s drive to charter more of its vessels to the oil majors as well as smaller oil companies.

“The expansion of the oil tanker fleet has been very carefully planned by Meiji,” he said. “We are looking years into the future with this new state of the art fleet. This is very much a long term investment designed to position ourselves as the most competitive operator in the world. We are optimistic the global shipping sector is beginning to recover and expect that to continue gradually over the next few years. The critical factor for MMSI is to provide the best possible training, support and working conditions to attract and retain the highest calibre of crew. By having experienced well trained crew on board we know we can offer oil companies absolute confidence in our ability to manage their tankers at a highly competitive cost.”

Dr Bhavnani said MMSI can offer seafarers career progression and tailored individual support and trainin

“It is no accident that we have one of the highest retention rates in the industry,” he said. “Our culture is to offer continuous learning. We aim to understand what the seafarers’ ambitions are and seek to build roles around their strengths. It is further vital that our crew have the latest skills and training to ensure they are right at the cutting edge of technology.”