Cyprus Shipping has a bright future

NICOSIA, Cyprus - Dec. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- Cyprus shipping has a bright future as Brussels may soon insist that cargoes entering the bloc’s ports should be carried on EU flag vessels and the island has the most recognisable flag in Europe as well as the only properly recognised tonnage tax-system.

On the Turkish embargo imposed on Cyprus flag ships since 1987, Mouskas, Director of Zela Shipping, says there is enormous pressure now on Turkey to lift the embargo and this might even happen before the recommencement of the inter-communal talks.

Mouskas believes there is ample room to improve the Cyprus shipping registry including appointing a director at the Department of Merchant Shipping (DMS), which has been acephalous since Sergios Serghiou retired two and half years ago.

More needs to be done to promote Cyprus internationally, Mouskas believes, although it is not easy due to the DMS’s limited budget. Cyprus should be much higher placed than the 10^th rank in the world of shipping. The island’s economic downturn has not affected shipping in any way as ship owners who use the Cyprus flag are residents abroad so it has had a zero effect on their trading.

Only resident ship owners may have been affected by the economic crisis, even though it has been reported that they didn’t have large amounts deposited in Cyprus banks.

In shipping, freights go to the bank which grants the loan to buy the ship and these banks are foreign banks usually without a base in Cyprus.

Some Cyprus-based ship management companies were slightly affected but eventually the Central Bank gave permission to use the funds they had in Cypriot banks in order to pay their crew and keep their ships going. The shipping industry in Cyprus, backed by a sound legal and tax system and the government’s support, is expected to grow and develop considerably in the years to come.