By L. Karageorgos
Greek shipowners and shipping companies again were the top buyers and sellers of vessels worldwide in 2018, while remaining in first place in terms of number of vessels and transport capacity.
According to Intermodal, the year also witnessed increased interest by Greek shipping concerns for tanker purchases.
On its part, Clarkson Research Services show that a total of 1,653 vessels, with a transport capacity of 49.4 million gt, had changed hands until early December 2018, a decrease of 7 percent from the corresponding figure in 2017.
Nevertheless, Greek interests again comprised the largest bloc of buyers and sellers of second-hand vessels, with 284 sales recorded, corresponding to 14.8 million gt. Conversely, Greek shipowners and shipping companies sold-off 216 units, corresponding to 10.6 million gt, Clarkson reported.
Overall, the Greek-controlled fleet remains the largest in the world, with 5,555 under the country’s registry or other “flags of convenience”. The fleet corresponds to 104.5 billion USD in value, and with a transport capacity of 2016.6 million gt in 2017.
