Economic woes at home and abroad have failed to slow the growth of the Greek controlled fleet and today its carrying capacity is larger than ever and seems to be growing.
According to the latest annual survey by the London-based Greek Shipping Cooperation (GSCC) the size of the Greek-owned fleet from March 2015 to February 2016, has risen to 4,092 vessels of 321m dwt, a growth of 6.1m dwt in carrying capacity and 2% in ship numbers, including 347 vessels of various types on order from shipyards.
Share of the world fleet in the hands of Greek owners remained virtually identical to last year with 7.6% of ships by number and 13.5% in gt terms, and 15.8% of dwt compared with 15.9% a year ago.
Greek crude oil tanker tonnage increased by more than 1.5m dwt during the period but as a percentage of the world fleet dropped from 26.6% last year to 24.8%. Greek owners posted net increases in tonnage in every sector in which they are active, and with the exception of crude carriers they gained share in terms of the world fleet in the other sectors.
“Despite the adverse market conditions, the slight increases and decreases are encouraging,” said the GSCC. “On the one hand, with the exception of the oil tankers, the cargo ship and passenger ship types, present a slight decrease while the other cargo ship types remain almost unchanged.
“On the other hand, the liquefied gas carriers, ore and bulk carriers and container ships have slightly increased in relation to the corresponding world fleet type for the year 2015. The figures differed for the chemical and products tankers, with the percentage for this category declining from 8% to 7.8% while the dwt figure increased to 13.3% from 13%.”
The survey shows Greeks control 13.3% of chemical and product tankers, 11.4% of liquefied gas carriers, 17.4% of ore and bulk carriers and 8% of container vessel tonnage.
Some 43 different flags can be found flying from the sterns of Greek vessels led by the home flag, though it is in decline, have lost losing on a net basis 30 vessels of more than 1.1m gt over the 12 months.
After the Greek flag, with 809 ships of 78.949m comes, Liberia 744 Greek owned ships of 54.74m, the Marshall Islands 717 ships of 55.55m and Malta 667 ships of 56.95m dwt. In the year Malta was the major growth flag registering an increase of more than 8m dwt in Greek-owned tonnage. Cyprus, Liberia and the Marshall Islands also posted big gains.
Average age of the Greek-controlled fleet in terms of ships was unchanged compared over the year at 10 years of age, some 2.8 years younger than the world fleet on average. On a tonnage basis the Greek-owned fleet is on average 8.1 years.
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