City's maritime rebirth

Shanghai, Singapore and Athens are all actively building maritime services hubs while there are calls in Britain to create a similar UK hub, taking in the expertise available in London, Glasgow, Southampton and Liverpool.

While London remains the world’s most important centre for ship broking, legal services and insurance - although it could cede its pre-eminent position in as little as ten years - Glasgow has arguably become the western world’s ship management capital.

Companies like Glasgow-based Seascot and Denholm’s have thrived while their reputations for providing first-class ship management services to owner/operators has grown.

These services include ship agency, logistics, sale and purchase and superintendancy as well insurance and crews.

Allan Stewart, managing director of Seascot, said yesterday Glasgow-based shipping companies, including Denholm’s, Harrisons (Clyde), Hapag and Maersk Sealand, now manage some 400 ships.

"Glasgow has flourished in the shipping management sector while London has suffered from many companies moving out of the metropolis because of high property and wage costs and stiff competition from New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, among others. Ship ownership and trade is shifting to the Far East, strengthening ports such as Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong," he said.

"The reasons for Glasgow’s success lies in the city being well endowed with experienced and qualified shipmasters and marine engineers and a flourishing shipping community that provides a stimulating maritime forum.

"Glasgow has built on its reputation for ship management and also on personnel recruitment, which is a big section of the business here. The biggest supplier of UK personnel is in Glasgow and the biggest trainer of UK cadets is also in Glasgow.

"London is still the biggest centre for maritime law and insurance companies but in all other areas Glasgow is doing very well."

Stewart said the Scottish Parliament could aid the renaissance of the country’s shipping business by emulating the Irish government’s initiative of introducing low tax zones, like at the banking centre in the former dockland area of Dublin, where, for a certain period, companies pay corporation tax of only 10 per cent.

Another threat to London is possible reforms to non-domicile tax status, under which wealthy foreigners living in the UK do not have to pay tax on their overseas income.

A change would encourage Greek ship owners, the backbone of the UK shipping community, to desert London. The British government has yet to end uncertainty over the issue.

Richard Sayer, chairman of Maritime London, has urged the government to do more to support British maritime services. He said: "A number of foreign countries are putting a lot of weight behind promoting their own maritime centres and we would be foolish if we ignored that."

The maritime services sector provides more than 16,000 jobs in the UK and generates more than 1 billion in net overseas earnings for the country.