Cyprus ship management revenues hit €623 million in first half of 2023

Cyprus has experienced a 3.85 per cent reduction in ship management revenues for the first half of 2023, according to a survey on ship management conducted by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), the results of which were released on Wednesday.

This marks the first decline in revenues after four consecutive semesters of growth, attributed to the global economic slowdown and persistently high inflation rates.

The CBC report, based on the aforementioned survey results, noted that the nominal revenues from ship management during the first half of 2023 amounted to €623 million, down from €648 million during the second half of 2022.

However, on an annual basis, there is a notable increase of nearly 9 per cent in revenues compared to the first half of 2022. Ship management revenues accounted for 4.5 per cent of the semi-annual GDP.

Germany continues to dominate the landscape, retaining the largest share of ship management revenues at 40 per cent, albeit slightly down from 41 per cent in the second half of 2022.

Greece remains in second place with 17 per cent (down from 16 per cent in the second half of 2022), while Switzerland has doubled its share to 10 per cent, up from 5 per cent in the previous year.

Other notable contributors in terms of revenue shares during the same period include Malta (5 per cent), the United States (4 per cent), and Singapore (4 per cent), which either experienced increases or remained stable.

It is noteworthy that there has been significant diversification in historical revenue shares by country, as evident from Germany’s share, which was nearly 50 per cent in the first half of 2018.

Concerning the distribution of revenue by company turnover, approximately 35 per cent of companies managed to generate revenues between €2 million and €30 million, while 23 per cent of companies generated revenues exceeding €30 million.

The majority of revenues were derived from full ship management services, constituting 48.6 per cent of the share, followed by crew management services at 47.6 per cent, and technical ship management limited to 3.8 per cent.

In parallel with the drop in revenues, ship management expenses for the first half of 2023 registered a nearly 4 per cent reduction, totalling €604 million.

This marks a halt to a series of increases that began in the first half of 2021 and is largely associated with rising fuel prices. On an annual basis, expenses witnessed a 13.5 per cent increase.

The vast majority of expenses, around 70 per cent, were allocated to crew expenses, with ship management expenses following at 24 per cent, and administrative expenses accounting for the remaining 6 per cent.