The maritime transport growth of 3.5% during the past 12 months till January 1, 2015, is the lowest in over a decade. At the beginning of the year, the fleet totaled 89,464 vessels, with overall 1.75 million in deadweight tonnage.
The salient features of the UNCTAD review report:
- Greece remains the leading shipowning country. (Greek companies accounting for more than 16 per cent of the world industry, followed by companies from Japan, China, Germany, and Singapore).
- Together, the top five shipowning countries control more than half of the world deadweight tonnage. Five of the top 10 ship-owning countries are from Asia, four from Europe and one – the United States of America – from continental America.
- Over the last decade, China, Hong Kong (China), the Republic of Korea and Singapore have moved up in the ranking of largest shipowning countries,
- Germany, Norway, and the United States have a lower market share today than in 2005. In South America, the largest shipowning country (in deadweight tonnage) continues to be Brazil, followed by Mexico, Chile, and Argentina.
- The African country with the largest fleet ownership is Angola, followed by Nigeria and Egypt.
- China ranked highest on the UNCTAD Liner Shipping Connectivity Index followed by Singapore, Hong Kong (China), the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Germany.
- The best-connected countries in Africa are Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa, reflecting their positions at the corners of the continent.
- In Latin America, Panama ranks highest on the Liner Shipping Connectivity Index, benefiting from the Panama Canal and from being at the crossroads of main East–West and North–South routes, followed by Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.
- The ten economies that rank lowest on the Index are all island States, reflecting their low-trade volumes and remoteness.
- While the container-carrying capacity per provider for each country tripled between 2004 and 2015, the average number of companies that provide services to each country’s ports decreased by 29 percent.
The Review of Maritime Transport 2015 says that it will be a challenge for policymakers to support technological advances and cost savings, yet at the same time ensure the cost savings are effectively passed on to the clients, that is, importers and exporters.
- At the beginning of 2015 the top 10 liner shipping companies operated more than 61 percent of the global container fleet and the top 20 controlled 83 percent of all container-carrying capacity. Together, the three largest companies have a share of almost 35 percent of the world total.
- All companies with vessels on the order book are investing in larger vessels, with the average vessel size being larger than the current average container-carrying capacity. This attempt to realize economies of scale increases the risk of oversupply, UNCTAD notes.
- The average vessel size for all new vessels on order by the top 15 companies is above 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units. Only very few companies outside the top 20 carriers have placed any new orders for far smaller vessel sizes.
- Rates of tonnage added to the global fleet continued to decline in absolute terms compared to previous years. The report notes the overall growth rate of tonnage remained slightly higher than that of the growth of seaborne trade (3.4 percent in 2014).
The Review of Maritime Transport 2015 says that total tonnage delivered in 2014 was only slightly more than half the tonnage delivered in the peak year of the historically largest shipbuilding cycle in 2011. As the report explains, tonnage delivered in 2014 had been ordered in some cases as long ago as 2008. While this oversupply may not be good news for shipowners, UNCTAD argues that it is a positive development for the revival of global trade because there is no shortage of carrying capacity and the cost of trade continues to decline in the long term.
In addition, the report reveals that, for the first time since the peak of the shipbuilding cycle, the average age of the world fleet increased slightly in 2014. The delivery of fewer new ships, combined with reduced scrapping activity, means that newer tonnage no longer compensates for the natural aging of the fleet.
Source: UNCTAD
