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Association of Ship Agents
reacts to Sea Malta comments
by a staff reporter
The council of the Association of Ship Agents yesterday reacted
to comments made in the press by the chairman of Sea Malta,
Mrs Marlene Mizzi.
In a statement, the association underlined the importance of
the ship agency function to the national economy and that, over
the years, ship agents played an indispensable role in Malta’s
economy, apart from creating hundreds of jobs and wealth.
“Without the representational and organisational capabilities
of the agents, Malta would have been cut off from the mainstream
of commerce from long before Sea Malta came into existence.
If Sea Malta ceases to operate, Malta will still continue to
have links with the world,” the association said.
It added that it was worrying that Sea Malta appeared to expect
further funds when these were required to service existing loans
“which in their turn are financing loss-making elements
of the operation”.
The problems Sea Malta is facing, the association stated, are
not necessarily a result of current management practices but
“it should be borne in mind that this is a company that
not very many years ago was granted virtually monopolistic rights
of sea-transport by government-controlled companies, including
Enemalta’s supply of petroleum and coal products. It was
only when Sea Malta could not accommodate requests that the
private sector was allowed to participate in this market and
when Sea Malta chartered vessels to take on the business, it
demanded that it be granted agency rights notwithstanding that
the vessels concerned were represented in Malta.”
The association said that if Sea Malta still needs subsidy,
then there is something that needs fixing in the company, and
quickly.
“Expansion into peripheral revenue raising areas of activity
is not necessarily the right answer, if the core operation carries
on losing money. It may also be appropriate to ask whether it
was right for Sea Malta to embark on a cruise business venture
when this is in competition with some of its shareholders who
have been in the business for years,” the association queried.
The association also added that many of its members are shareholders
in Sea Malta and they would be interested to learn whether the
company’s eagerness to enter the ship agency field, as
well as many other fields such as cruise liner agency and shore
excursions, is prompted by its losses of over one and a half
million liri over the last 18 months.
“Many shareholders would also be interested to learn what
their shares are worth and whether the company has only survived
because it has drawn on assets created during protectionist
times,” the association said.
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