UK Registered Fleet Shrinks

The number of UK registered ships is currently at its lowest level since 2006, according to 2014 Shipping Fleet Statistics released by the UK Transport Department.

The UK fleet experienced substantial growth between the late 1990s and 2008/09, when the industry started to feel the impact of the global recession.

However, since 2009 there has been a period of decline, with measures falling by between 16 per cent (UK managed ships) and 27 per cent (UK registered ships).

Despite the decline in recent years, the UK registered fleet is still four times the size it was in the late 1990s, having increased from 2.7 million dwt to 12.6 million dwt, the statistics show. Over the same period, UK direct owned tonnage more than doubled, from 7.2 million dwt to 16.5 dwt.

Container ships accounted for much of the larger share of the UK registered fleet than the UK owned fleet.

In 2014, the majority of UK registered fleet comprised of container vessels (60 per cent of deadweight tonnage) and nearly one fifth was accounted for by oil, or oil-chemical tankers (18 per cent). Eleven per cent of UK registered tonnage was formed of bulk carriers.

Approximately one third of UK direct owned deadweight tonnage was formed of container ships (35 per cent), and another third came from bulk carriers. Liquid gas tankers accounted for 13 per cent of the UK direct owned fleet and oil and oil-chemical tankers accounted for 10 per cent.

Since 2009 the combined deadweight tonnage of the world fleet has increased by 34 per cent to 1,669.7 million dwt. In comparison, the UK fleet has decreased by 27 per cent to 12.6 million dwt.

In terms of the number of vessels, the world fleet increased by 5 per cent from 54,125 to 56,759 ships and the UK registered fleet decreased by 36 per cent, from 712 to 453 vessels.

The UK’s share of the world fleet was stable between 1999 and 2008, at around 1 per cent. Since 2009, this has decreased from 1.3 to 0.8 per cent in 2014.

In 2014 the UK fleet fell from 16th place to 20th place, in terms of deadweight tonnage, decreasing by 17 per cent.

Panama remained at the top of the global ranking at the end of 2014, although the deadweight tonnage dropped by 1 per cent compared to 2013. There was little change in the size of the Liberian fleet compared to 2013, and it is still ranked at second place. The Marshall Islands have seen the biggest increase in the deadweight tonnage of registered vessels over the year (7 per cent).

In 2014, the top 10 nations held 77 per cent of total deadweight tonnage, whilst the UK held less than 1 per cent of total deadweight tonnage. According to the statistics, the main cause for the decrease in the size of the UK fleet was the net impact of ships transferring their registration to other countries, with relatively few ships transferring their registration from elsewhere to the UK.

Of the 19 vessels registered in the UK in 2014, 7 were newly built ships coming into operation for the first time.