Merchant fleets

In 2014 the capacity of the global fleet of merchant ships grew by 3.5%, to a total of 1.75 billion deadweight tonnage (a measure of how much vessels can transport). This was the lowest annual growth rate in over a decade. Ships are delivered several years after they are bought: the slowdown reflects the fact that those arriving in 2014 were ordered in the post-crisis years. Greece and Japan remain the two largest ship-owning countries by capacity, controlling almost 30% of the world’s tonnage in 2014. But China now owns the most ships. Many countries’ ships are registered under foreign flags of convenience, but China has a large proportion of nationally flagged ships used in coastal shipping.