The top ten countries with the largest fleet of ships under their flag remained unchanged. Greece, which is home to more than 600 shipping companies that control over 5,500 ships in terms of registry, is in ninth place. However, it has lost 4.2% of its capacity in terms of GT compared to November 2023.
According to a recent survey by “N”, the Greek-flagged fleet has been decreasing at a steady pace, almost every year, both in terms of capacity and in terms of number of ships, since 2015. At the same time, it has lost the lead, in terms of European flags, to Malta, and is now the second largest registry in Europe.
According to Lloyd’s Intelligence’s annual data on the top 10 flags of the world, for ships of 500 gt and above, Liberia remained at the top, Panama is in second place, while the Marshall Islands is firmly in third place. It is noted that these three registries have 55% of the tonnage available in the top 10 registries in terms of gt.
Greece
According to the Lloyd’s analysis, Greece has maintained its ninth place in the rankings, but saw its tonnage shrink for another year. Its fleet shrank by 4.2% to 33.3 gt, further reducing the gap with 10th-placed Japan, whose fleet maintained its growth trajectory.
In the 2020 edition of this special issue, Greece’s tonnage stood at 38 million gt, holding a 9 million gt lead over Japan. This gap has narrowed to around 2.2 million gt. However, in terms of deadweight tonnage (dwt), the gap remains at safe levels, at over 14 million dwt.
In terms of quality characteristics, however, the Greek registry is among the top in the world, since it has very high ratings at the Paris MOU and Tokyo MOU levels, while it also participates in the Qualship 21 program of the US Coast Guard.
It is noted that the Greek state has launched a program to digitally upgrade the Greek registry, through the creation of the e-registry, as well as the preparation of the e-navigation. The biggest issues facing the Greek registry, as recorded by Greek shipping companies, are bureaucracy, the lack of Greek seafarers, digitalization, and the slow response rates to the needs of ships on a 24-hour basis.
