ClassNK Overshoots 20 Million New Tonnage Mark

833 new vessels with a combined total of 21,466,272 gt joined ClassNK’s register in 2014, marking the fourth straight year that the Japanese classification society registered over 20 million in new tonnage.

ClassNK’s growth in 2014 comes in spite of a global downturn in the market which has seen newbuilding deliveries fall by an estimated 15% according to Clarkson Research Services. ClassNK registered a total of 548 newbuildings with a combined total of over 16 million gt, or more than 25% of all newly built tonnage in 2014 based on Clarkson’s figures.

Growth was also driven by transfers from other societies which reached a record 285 vessels in 2014, including ClassNK’s first US-flagged and German-flagged vessels. Continuing trends from previous years, European shipowners, led by German and Greek owners, accounted for roughly half of all transfers to the NK register in 2014.

ClassNK Chairman and President Noboru Ueda said: ”In addition to the establishment of our Survey Operations Headquarters in Hamburg and New York last year, the acquisition of software leaders NAPA and Helm Operations has enabled us to widen the scope of our activities throughout Europe and North America to better serve the global maritime industry.”

At the end of December 2014, ClassNK had a total of 8,872 vessels on its register with a combined total of 232,871,435 gt.