Again we are counting the last days for another year that have passed and it´s time to sum up what have been achieved, what went well and where there´s possibly still space for improvement. Shipping can be compared to life in general, regardless of how good your plans and intentions are, there will be surprises and needs to adept to them. As there are many factors beyond Charterers and Owners control, our common job is to make the best out of the given circumstances. Especially the last weeks have reminded us how exposed we are to the whims of the weather, just to mention on factor that can turn things upside down. It goes without a saying that an open, and both-way communication with our customers and counterparts is crucial in order to make the best on basis of the prevailing situation. This year has not been an exception in the sense that everything has not gone as planned from the beginning, but on the whole I think we together have performed quite well. I´d like to take the opportunity to thank you all for a smoot and fruitful corporation and your valuable input to achieve common objectives. A big thank you also to everyone who responded to our customer survey, which helps us to improve our performance henceforth.
Besides working hard on everyday issues, we have put a lot effort to enhance our actions to make our business more sustainable. Climate change has received a lot of attention both locally and globally and there is a broad consensus that it is time to move from talks into action. Unfortunately, much of the discussions are still argumentation about who should make what and when and rather to make the famous “someone else” to take the first step. In our company environmental issues have always been given high priority and we are committed to step by step walk the path towards a cleaner shipping industry. In 2019 we took two remarkable leaps by launching both our Zero-waste program for our vessels and the EcoVoy chartering contract. Whereas the zero-waste program is an internal challenge where we strive to reduce the amount of waste onboard and ensure that the remaining waste is taken care of responsible, the EcoVoy-contract offers our customers an opportunity to be part of and to benefit from an almost CO2 neutral shipping method. When launching this concept in August we had rather moderate expectation for the first year, but we can now see that the interest for this “product” has been great and our goals have already been exceeded. This encourages us to continue working for this cause in the future.
For the upcoming year there will be some amendments in our coaster fleet as some of our TC-vessels will be replaced by vessels that we consider to better suite our customer needs. We will also continue to increase our activity in the project market, may it then involve larger or smaller units, we are there to provide solutions. Overall, we expect the new decade to bring new opportunities and challenges. Let´s take advantage of the opportunities and tackle the challenges together. Although the last months of this year have been grey and unusually rainy, we look forward with confidence to a new and exciting year.
Beppe Rosin
Managing Director of Meriaura
Managing Director of Meriaura
