Executive Overview: Jane's Merchant Ships

Jane's Merchant Ships is, principally, a recognition guide that uses a visual identification system based on ship types and certain features. It is mostly external features that determine the type classifications. The ship types and the recognition system are set out in the section titled 'The Recognition System'. The section titled 'How to Use Jane's Merchant Ships' explains how the system is applied in the book. Only trading ships - that is, those that carry cargo and/or passengers as their principal occupation - are eligible for inclusion. They must also have an overall length of 70 m (230 ft) or more although there are some exceptions to this.

World fleet

For the first time, the world merchant fleet has broken through the 1 billion deadweight tonnes barrier. At the start of 2007, it stood at 1.04 billion dwt. There was a fall in the number of foreign-flagged ships in service. This was the first time this had happened in 20 years and was probably largely due to the tonnage tax policies of recent years that have encouraged owners back to national flags. The two leading ship registries, Panama and Liberia, together account for almost one third of the total dwt. Inevitably, the growth in container traffic has been extraordinary. During 2006, it grew by 13.4 per cent to 440 million TEU. At the beginning of 2007, the average age of the world fleet had fallen, marginally, to 12 years. The youngest ships were container ships, at an average of 9.1 years.

Countries overview

Australia

The new labour government in Australia has given a pledge to reinvigorate the national fleet and to counter the exploitation of foreign seafarers serving in the coastal trades. One of its plans is to review the country's cabotage arrangements in a bid to increase its share of domestic freight. This currently stands at around 80 per cent. At the start of 2008, the national-flag fleet stood at just 129 ships of 100 gt and over.

China

The whole of the Chinese maritime industry, including shipping, shipbuilding and fishing, grew by 15 per cent in 2007. This is a faster rate of growth than the overall economy and now accounts for 10 per cent of China's economic activity, creating 1.9 million new jobs in 2007.

Cyprus

The Cyprus ship register, one of the world's top ten, reported its first growth in four years in 2007.

Dominica

The Dominica Maritime Registry has launched a programme that is designed to prevent port detentions for its vessels. It hopes to achieve zero detentions by 2010. The registry has grown consistently over the past three years and has reached more than 275 ships.

Germany

At the end of September 2007, the German register consisted of 574 vessels - a loss of 30 since the start of 2007. The Association of German Shipowners, VDR, has stated that shipping companies urgently need 650 officer graduates a year for the next 10 years. This is more than three times the number currently being trained.

India

There has been significant growth in Indian shipping in recent years. Between 2002 and 2006 the commercial fleet grew from 6.21 million gt to 8.58 million. The fleet is dominated by bulk carriers and tankers. The latter form 55.7 per cent of the current fleet and bulk carriers make up 30.6 per cent.

Jamaica

The Jamaican government has announced plans to expand its ship registry. It hopes to reach a target of 1 million gt by 2010 and it will particularly target European shipowners. At the beginning of 2008 there were 45 ships under the flag, totalling 176,000 gt.

Japan

The Japanese government has finally agreed, after years of union campaigning, to introduce a tonnage tax scheme. It is hoped that this will stem the loss of ships from the country's register. More than 90 per cent of Japanese-owned ships are under foreign flags.

Korea

The South Korean Register of Shipping has adopted a 'zero tolerance' policy in a bid to improve the quality of the 2,600+ ships it has on its books.

Liberia

At the end of 2007, the Liberian ship register had reached a total of 2,665 ships, aggregating 82,165,902 gt. This represented an increase of 18 per cent over the year.

Marshall Islands

The Marshall Islands flag planned to reach 40 million gt by the end of 2006 but failed to meet its target. This figure was based on a 30 per cent annual growth. Before the end of the first quarter of 2007, a total of 1,420 ships, of some 36 million gt, was reached and it was hoped that the target figure would be met by the end of 2007.

Netherlands

The European Commission has approved a four-year Dutch state scheme promoting innovation in maritime transport. The scheme provides subsidies of up to 80 per cent for research and development to help shipowners meet the challenges of new maritime and environmental safety requirements. Despite this, the Dutch shipowners' organisation, KVNR, has said the Dutch tonnage tax system must undergo significant changes in order to keep it competitive.

Norway

A new tonnage tax is to take effect in May 2008. One of the country's largest shipowners has already announced that it will relocate its operations from Bermuda to Norway. The first tonnage tax scheme was put in place in 1996 and the government has decided to demand payments of tax retrospectively, over the next ten years, calculated since the original scheme.

Panama

Panama's ship register is the world's largest, with more than 7,000 vessels. In the past there have been some problems with a lack of pre-inspection before a vessel joins the flag but this is being addressed.

Philippines

The President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has praised the country's seafarers for their contribution to the national economy. Philippine Seafarers account for 28 per cent of the global maritime workforce and contributed some USD14.4 billion to the national economy in 2007.

Russia

Ships are continuing to leave the Russian flag. The proportion of Russian-controlled ships operating under foreign flags is about 62.5 per cent. Ten years ago it was 31.5 per cent.

Spain

Spanish shipowners have presented a plan to their government which should boost the country's maritime sector and stem the flow of Spanish-owned vessels to foreign flags. The government has taken measures that will allow the employment of non-EU crews on vessels operating under the country's second, Canary Islands, register.

United Kingdom

A number of changes to the UK Tonnage Tax came into force in April 2008. The main change is that vessels that provide services, such as cable laying, diving support and research, no longer qualify under tonnage tax. Standby safety vessels continue to qualify as they are considered to provide marine assistance.

United States

Meanwhile, the US Congress has approved an increase in the amount of support for strategic merchant vessels. They have authorised a total of USD156 million for the Maritime Security Plan in the next fiscal year. This will mean USD2.6 million in operating assistance being paid to each of the 60 ships enrolled in the scheme.

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