As booming Asia is shifting the centre of the shipping industry from west to east, Frederick Tsao, chairman of Intercargo, contends that international shipping lacks leadership; "This is the time for renewed co-operation and communication in shipping."
Frederick Tsao has been the chairman of the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners (Intercargo) for almost seven years. A recognized leader in Asian shipping, Tsao has for a long time advocated that the industry needs to work together in order to promote a safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly maritime transport industry.
“I believe in an old Chinese saying that if everyone plays their role, then everyone will get what they want. Leadership is a by-product of that. So don’t worry about leadership, but about everyone knowing and playing their roles. What we lack in shipping, especially in Asia, is leaders that are willing to step up, take responsibility and play their role for the best of the industry,” says Tsao.
Aligning intellectual and emotional values
Tsao is a fourth generation shipowner of the Singaporean based IMC shipping company, the shipping arm of the IMC Group. When DNV Forum catches up with him he is at a leadership seminar guiding IMC managers to adapt to the changing times in shipping.
“We have had to change our strategy to respond to the multi-national, fast-growth Asia environment. We are doing everything we can to motivate people and align both their intellectual and emotional values to bring about unity, and help transform IMC from a shipping company into an industrial supply chain company,” says Tsao.
“Without unity and cohesiveness what you loose ultimately is competitiveness,” Tsao claims, with the implication that lack of unity in the industry has similar negative effects.
From west to east
According to Tsao, the centre of the shipping industry is moving to the East, capitalising on the regions lower costs and the increasing trade with Asia.
“Shipping is a global industry, but politics are local. Even though shipping operations are moving east, the regulations are still being made in the west, and some of these regulations are not very friendly to the industry,” says Tsao.
He explains; “In the west the labour unions are mostly gone while ship crews are now mostly from Asia. The recent initiative by regulators criminalised the captain in the event of an accident. The only opposition within the EU against this came from Greece, Malta, and Cyprus.”
He emphasises; “We need to align our interests with the Greeks, because they are the last defence line within the EU working for the best interest of the industry,” says Tsao.
Better regulations. Tsao firmly believes that an important building block toward higher standards of shipping is international regulations.
“We need better regulations to continue raising the industry standard. However, the industry should actively participate in the formulation of the regulations. That way, we can get the sensible, good regulations we need and not regulations as a knee-jerk reaction to accidents,” he says.
He feels that the common rules project is one step in the right direction. “We want class to be united and set standards, and not be so commercial. If classification societies could focus on training, quality of surveyors and consistency, instead of fighting each other, then it's a step in the right direction towards higher standards. We need class to set benchmarks for quality.”
Stepping down
In September Tsao will end his tenure in Intercargo, during the association’s 25th anniversary, having a number of accomplishments under his belt.
“We have completed the infrastructure building, the direction paper, and the optimal bulker carrier project, which has been very successful. In fact, around 50 of these holistic bulker carrier designs, made by shipowners, class societies and yards, have been sold already. And beginning this year we have merged the secretariat with Intertanko, which will enable us to be more effective. We are also firmly in the black. Now is the time for me to leave,” says Tsao.