SHIPPING AND MARITIME TRANSPORT 2012-2013 - ANAVE June 2012 | Page 12

ANAVE WORLD MERCHANT FLEET
cargo carrying fleet consisted of 54,859 ships (-0.5% decrease as compared to 1 January 2012), with 1,027,044,761 GT (+3.6%) and 1,543,436,483 dwt, (+4.1%). These figures show a significantly lower growth than it was estimated last fall by Clarkson (6.1%), mainly due to higher scrapping rates, which have exceeded expectations. The segment of the fleet that registered the biggest increase, in GT, was the bulk carriers fleet (+7.1%) though it cannot be compared to the huge growth experienced in 2011 (+16.9%). Containerships grew by 4.4% as compared to +8.3% in 2011 and the oil tankers fleet increased by 3.1% (6.4% in 2011). Other fleet segments recorded declines of different magnitude: gas carriers (-0.6%), general cargo (-3.7%) and OBO (combined) which were down a remarkable 51.2% and practically do not has, any more, weight in the world fleet. The GT distribution of the world merchant fleet by vessel type did not change significantly over the previous year. By the beginning of 2013 35.5% of GT correspond to bulk carriers, 22.8% to oil tankers and 17.5% to containerships. During 2012, the addition to the fleet of nearly 150 million dwt of new ships, along with the dismantling of about 59 million dwt, significantly reduced the average age of the world fleet to 17,3 years as compared to 18.7 years a year earlier. Younger segments of the fleet were oil tankers and bulk carriers (both 8.9 years), container vessels (9.9 years), LNG gas carriers (10.2 years), chemical tankers (11.3 years), LPG gas

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ccording to Lloyd’s Register - Fairplay, as of 1 January 2013, world

According to ISL Bremen statistics, during 2012, 1,532 merchant ships, with 58.6 million dwt were broken up (2.8% of the fleet), a new record after the 47 million dwt scrapped in 2011, and accounting for 3.8% of the existing fleet at the end of the year. Bulk carriers accounted for nearly 60% of the scrap tonnage, with 596 units and 35.2 million dwt; tankers accounted for 21.9%, with 214 units and 12.9 million dwt. Finally, 182 containerships were scrapped, totalling 4.9 million dwt (330,000 TEUs) and 8.3% of the number of ships scrapped. It is particularly significant that both, in the bulk carrier segment and in the containerships, the average age of scrapped vessels fell from 30 years in 2011 to just 23 in 2012, while the scrapped oil tanker fleet average age decreased from 25 to 23 years.

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World Merchant Fleet