UK: Shipping Fleet Grew 7% in 2017

Gross tonnage on the UK Ship Register (UKSR) grew 7% in the year to end 2017, and was 16.2 million GT at end December 2017.

News ID: 78767

Date: 03 April 2018 - 13:54

Official data from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) – for all merchant vessels over 100GT1 – shows that gross tonnage on the UKSR has grown by 18% compared with the end of 2014, following three consecutive years of growth, MANA correspondent reported.

Based on world fleet data (supplied by IHS Global) for trading vessels only, at the end of 2017, the UK registered trading fleet accounted for 0.8% of the world fleet on a deadweight tonnage basis (a measure of cargo carrying capacity), and 1.2% when based on gross tonnage (a measure of vessel size).

UK fleet was the 18th largest trading fleet in the world, on a deadweight tonnage basis and accounted for 26% of deadweight tonnage of the Red Ensign Group, which as a whole would be the world’s 10th largest trading fleet.

These statistics provide other measures of the UK shipping fleet, based on vessel ownership and management, which show that at the end of 2017, the ‘UK fleet’ of ships either owned, parent owned or managed in the UK is larger than the UK registered trading fleet – comprising in total around 4% of the world fleet, by deadweight tonnage.

The deadweight tonnage of ships with a UK owner, parent owner or UK manager all increased in 2017, compared with end .2016

These statistics provide different measures of UK shipping interests, set in the global context, including the number of UK registered (UK flagged) vessels. Every merchant ship must be registered in a country (the ‘flag state’) and ship registration can, in part, be considered an indicator of the overall health of a country’s maritime sector.