The Hindu Business Line : Insights into structure of world fleet

The Review of Maritime Transport 2005 brought out by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, giving comparative data on the world shipping fleet for 2003, 2004 and 2005, suggests that the increase in 2004 was higher than the increases in the previous two years. The Review provides interesting insights into the structure and ownership of the world merchant shipping fleet.

THE latest issue of the Review of Maritime Transport 2005 brought out by the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (Unctad) provides interesting insight into the structure and ownership of the world merchant shipping fleet in 2004.The world merchant fleet stood at 895.8 million deadweight tons (dwt) as on January 1,2005, representing a 4.5 per cent increase over the start of 2004. In 2003, the world fleet had expanded by 1.5 per cent over the tonnage in 2002.

Giving comparative time-series data on the world fleet for 2003, 2004 and 2005, the Review suggests that the increase in 2004 was higher than the increases in the previous two years. The newbuilding deliveries represented 49.4 million dwt while 10.6 million dwt were broken up and lost. The net addition to the world shipping tonnage thus was 38.8 million dwt in 2004.

The tonnage of oil tankers in 2004 increased by a healthy 6.1 per cent and that of bulk carriers by 4.2 per cent. These two types represented 73.3 per cent of total tonnage, a slight increase from 72.9 per cent in 2003. The fleet of general cargo ships continued to decline in 2004, though at a much faster rate of 2.9 per cent.

Thus at the beginning of 2005, the general cargo ship tonnage was 92.04 million dwt as compared to 94.76 million dwt in the beginning of 2004 and 97.18 million dwt at the beginning of 2003. This category represented 10.3 per cent of the total world fleet in the beginning of 2005, as compared 11.1 per cent in the beginning of 2004 and 11.5 per cent in the beginning of 2003.

In terms of deadweight tonnage, according to the Review, the fleet of container ships increased by 7.6 million dwt to 98.06 million dwt or 8.4 per cent. The container fleet accounted for 10.9 per cent of the total world fleet as compared to 10.6 per cent in the beginning of 2004 and 9.8 per cent in the beginning of 2003. This relatively high rate of increase reflected the growing proportion of manufactured goods being traded in containers.

In fact, as the Review points out, the world fleet of fully cellular container ships continued to expand substantially in 2004, in terms of both number of ships and TEU capacity. Thus, at the beginning of 2005, there were 3,206 ships with a total capacity of 7.16 million TEUs, an increase of five per cent in the number of ships and 11.3 per cent in TEU capacity over the previous year.

Ship sizes also continued to rise, with an average carrying capacity per ship growing from 2,108 TEUs in 2003 to 2,235 TEUs in 2004, indicating the emergence of more larger-capacity vessels to achieve the economies of scale. At the end of 2004, the vessels of over 4000-TEU capacity each accounted for 74 per cent of the order book; 165 vessels on order were larger than 7,500-TEU capacity each.

The tonnage of other types of ships, such as liquid gas carriers (mainly LPG and LNG carriers), increased steadily. The total tonnage of gas carriers, at 22.54 million dwt, showed a growth of 7.6 per cent.

The Unctad Review also throws light on the average age distribution of the world merchant fleet by types of vessels and by groups of countries and territories. The average age of the total world fleet dropped marginally to 12.3 years, compared to 12.5 years in 2003. By the type of vessel, the average age of tankers decreased by about half a year to 10.3 years in 2004 (10.9 years in 2003).

The share of tanker tonnage of 15 years and older decreased to 27.4 per cent in 2004 from 29.9 per cent in 2003, after modest scrapings which, in 2004, reached 7.8 million dwt as compared to 18.4 million dwt in 2003. The average age of dry bulk carrier fleet increased marginally to 13 years in 2004 from 12.9 years in 2003. The container ships continued to be the youngest fleet in 2004, with an average age of 9.4 years, slightly above 9.2 years average of the previous year. The share of tonnage between 0 and four years of age was 31.9 per cent (29.3 per cent in 2003), the highest among all categories of vessels.

By country grouping, the fleet age of developed market-economy countries in 2004 was the lowest at 10.5 years in 2004 (10.9 years in 2003). These countries continued the last few year's trend of lowering the average age of their fleet. Also, in this group, the average age of tankers decreased by half a year to 8.5 years in 2004 as compared to nine years in 2003. This follows the European Union's insistence on new tonnage on environmental grounds.

The major open registry countries had the second lowest average age of all ships — 11.8 years in 2004 as compared to 11.9 years in 2003, even though the tendency to register new buildings under open registry flags showed a declining trend.

The average age of all ships in developing countries (excluding open registry countries) stood at 13.1 years for 2004, the same as the previous year. For this group, the average age of general cargo vessels decreased to 18.6 years, while that of container ships increased marginally to 9.3 years.

The average age of tonnage registered in the socialist countries of Asia decreased by almost a year to 16.8 years in 2004. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe continued to have oldest fleet, 20.5 years in 2004, compared to 20.7 years in 2003, with vessels built more than 15 years ago accounting for four-fifths of the total fleet and the bulk carriers constituting the oldest class of ships at 22.9 years.

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