Enter World Fleet Monitor

Our new ‘World Fleet Monitor’ (WFM) is designed to solve this problem by providing busy decision makers in business and government with easy to access information about the merchant fleet. In particular the aim is to identify movement. What is changing? From the fleet of 79,164 vessels at the start of November 2009, WFM provides information and trends with a timeliness never previously available.

Flag States…?

The first section deals with the flag. Country-by-country tables provide trends in the registered fleets of 196 flag states. Which major flag is growing fastest? A glance through carefully laid out tables shows that so far this year it is Malta, up 15.7%. At the other end of the scale the Norwegian International fleet shrunk 5.1%, back to where it was in 2005. Wonder why? This section also analyses the fleets of the major classification societies.

Owned by...?

Then there is the thorny question of ownership. A summary table shows the fleet actually owned by the various maritime countries. In November 2009 Japan was the biggest shipowner with a fleet of 8,150 vessels of 133 m GT and worth $102 bn. Greece is close behind with 125 m GT, followed by Germany. There is also detailed information about orders placed, deliveries, demolition and ship sales by country.

Do you know how much of the bulker fleet is owned in EU-Europe? The answer is 78 m GT, accounting for 31% of the total. EU-Europe owns 39% of the tanker fleet and 51% of the general cargo fleet. Interesting. But when we look up the whole fleet Asia Pacific gets its own back - it owns 323 m GT, just top-ping EU-Europe's 321 m GT.

Age of the Fleet

Another handy statistic is the age profile of the whole fleet of 79,164 vessels. A summary table provides profiles for seven ship types and the whole fleet in numbers and GT. There's not all that much tonnage over 25 years is there? Up-to-date statistics on sea trade aren’t easy to find either, so we have included a table of seaborne commodity trade with history and a forecast.

Fleeting Moment

So there you have it. The merchant fleet is always on the move and the new ‘World Fleet Monitor’ will help you to follow trends you did not even know existed. We really do believe that for anyone serious about the shipping industry, this joins ‘World Shipyard Monitor’ as a "must have" information source.

‘World Fleet Monitor’ is a stand-alone publication outside the ‘Shipping Intelligence Network’, available now on a monthly basis. For further details and information on subscription see the attached orderform, visit our on-line shop or call our sales hotline on +44 (0)207 334 3134.