EMSA issued Equasis Annual Report 2015 providing a picture of the worlds’ merchant fleet in 2015, derived from data contained in the Equasis database. It examines the structure and characteristics of the fleet and its performance.
Merchant Fleet Population Overview
The Equasis fleet is dominated (81%) by small and medium sized ships up to 24.999 GT. Small ships alone represent 37% by number, although around only 1% by tonnage.Tugs (19.9%), general cargo ships (18.7%), oil and chemical tankers (14.6%) and bulk carriers (12.9%) are the most
common ship types by number, representing about two thirds of the Equasis fleet. Most of these are small and medium sized ships.
Within the large and very large categories, bulk carriers (40.3%), oil and chemical tankers (24.5%) and container ships (17.2%) represent about 85% of the fleet in number in these ship size categories.
In terms of tonnage, the large and very large size categories represent 81% of the Equasis fleet , with oil and chemical tankers, bulk carriers, and container ships jointly dominating both categories at 84% (large) and 83.6% (very large).
The most modern fleets are made up of the biggest ships in tonnage. Looking back at the statistics of the previous years, it is clear that the younger ships are bigger than their predecessors. This trend has been observed in previous years with the biggest ships being recent additions to the fleet.
Around a third (35%) of the total number of ships are associated with a targeted flag State; this proportion is approximate for each size category: 36% for the medium sized ship category, 32% for the large category and the very large.
For the targeted flag States, general cargo ships are the most common ship category in number (21.7%), but bulk carriers are the most common ship type category by tonnage (44%). This is expected considering that these two ship types are the most common with respect to the total number of ships and tonnage (19.9% and 35.1%, respectively).
In comparison, oil and chemical tankers (20.4%), bulk carriers (18.1%), and general cargo ships (17.9%), have a larger proportion of the total number of ships originating from non-targeted flag States.
The report states the majority of maritime traffic occurs in the Mediterranean Sea (12%) and Asia (39%), with both geographical areas accounting for 51% of the total sightings reported to Equasis. In respect to ship size, small sized ships were predominately sighted in the Mediterranean Sea (39.9%) while very large ships in Asia (41.1%). (see below table & graph)
Further details may be found by reading EMSA report herebelow
Source: EMSA
