Insurance and IMO 2020 set to hit ship operating costs

Accountancy firm BDO is predicting a rise in vessel operating costs for shipowners due to hardening insurance rates and incoming regulation.

Overall on average BDO’s survey suggested ship operating costs are set to increase by 2.5% in 2019 and 2.7% in 2020. The cost inflation comes after shipowners enjoyed a 1.8% fall in operating costs in 2018.

BDO’s Future Operating Costs Survey identified hardening insurance rates as having the biggest impact on costs.