The crew changeover situation is deteriorating again as Covid-19 lockdowns increase — and it could remain a problem for shipping into 2022.

This is according to Mark O'Neil, chief executive of Columbia Shipmanagement and president of Intermanager, who told TradeWinds that crew are already willingly extending contracts as restrictions increase worldwide.

By December last year, Columbia had managed to reduce the number of its crew members overdue a change to 60 out of 15,000 people.