Greek shipowners seem to be determined to keep Greece the top shipowning nation as they push forward with the spending spree on more tonnage.
Over the past decade, Greek owners invested over USD 100 billion in newbuilding vessels. Some 60 Greek companies still have ships on order worth more than USD 15 billion, data from Newsfront Greek Shipping Intelligence reveals.
A total of 237 ships of 23.8 million dwt were on order for Greek interests at the beginning of October, 86 of them contracted in the first nine months of 2017, while a number of multiple-ship contracts were at the letter of intent (LoI) stage, including one for up to eight 82,000 dwt bulkers and one for two 208,000 dwt Newcastlemaxes, figures from Posidonia update indicate.
Furthermore, the said ships are being built to high specs, with many of them Tier II and Tier III compliant.
At the same time, Greek shipowners have been the most active players in the secondhand market adding 256 vessels to their fleets in the January – September period, at an outlay of USD 3.7bn, making them must-have customers for the entire sweep of the maritime service sector.
The latest UNCTAD figures confirm that Greece owns the world’s largest cargo carrying fleet of 4,199 vessels with combined capacity of 309 million dwt as of January 2017. The country’s its share of the global fleet is growing as well, from 16.3 percent at the beginning of 2016 to 16.7 percent a year later.