Bulker investments drive Greek fleet growth

[Angelo]

Bulker investments drive Greek fleet growth
By Nigel Lowry, Athens - Tuesday 11 March 2008


Greece's fleet grew by 20% in the last year.
LAST year’s enormous investments in dry bulk carriers have been largely responsible for a dramatic expansion of the Greek controlled fleet.

In the last 12 months Greek owners have added a staggering 42.7m dwt to their collective capacity, a leap of nearly 20%, according to a new report by the Greek Shipping Co-operation Committee which has been surveying the strength of the Greek owned fleet annually for the last 21 years.

By number of ships the fleet also grew – by 474 vessels, or 12.8%.

The latest survey, drawing on industry data shows that the fleet in service and on order has increased to record heights of 261m dwt.

Of this fleet, the new order book comprises 1054 ships of 50m dwt.

Orders and acquisitions of bulkers and ore carriers contributed 324 ships and 34.4m dwt to the net increase in the fleet.

The Greek controlled container vessel fleet also posted a noteworthy gain, rising by 60 ships and 4.7m dwt. Chemical and product tankers were another popular type last year for Greeks who boosted their presence in this sector of tankers by 90 ships and 2.5m dwt.

“The Greek owned fleet remains the first in the world, and gradually continues to increase its percentage of the world fleet,” observed the study.

Greek owners controlled about 8.7% of the world fleet by number of vessels, but 16.4% of the world fleet in terms of dwt.

Flags which captured part of the increased size of the Greek owned fleet included Liberia and the Marshall Islands but by far the biggest movement was towards the home flag, which was bolstered by more flexible manning rules at the start of 2007.

The national registry gained a net 228 ships of 22.3m dwt, restoring its share of the fleet to 29%.
In another striking development, the average age of existing Greek ships has decreased further and at 12.5 years the average Greek owned ship is nearly a year younger than the worldwide average, which has also been reduced.

As recently as 2000 the average age of a Greek owned ship was more than 20 years old.

The 1,054 ships on the order books for Greek account marks an increase in the portion of world shipbuilding orders from 9.2% a year ago to 11% today


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[Angelo]

EMAIL THIS
GREEK-OWNED FLEET BOOMS
Monday, 10 March 2008

NEW figures from the Greek Shipping Co-operation Committee show a an increase in the number of vessels controlled by Greek interests of nearly 13% and of over 19% in terms of deadweight and gross tonnage. The figures, prepared from Lloyd’s Register – Fairplay data, show that Greek interests control 4,173 vessels of various categories, of 260,929,221 dwt and 154,599,274 gt. These figures include 1,054 newbuildings.

Greek interests continue to control the largest share of the world fleet and are particularly strongly represented in the tanker and bulk carrier sectors.

The newbuildings comprise125 oil tankers, 273 chemical & products tankers, 38 liquid gas carriers, 487 ore & bulk carriers, 63 pure container carriers, 49 cargo ships, 13 other ships and 6 passenger ship.


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[Napalm]

I'm glad the world has become more dependent on Greek shipping as it makes it less likely for the US to want to bomb Greece if anything were to happen with the albos or skops for example.

[Angelo]

Greek ship owners ready to decamp from UK

By Kerin Hope

Published: March 12 2008 02:37 | Last updated: March 12 2008 02:37

Greece has moved swiftly to ensure the return of about 100 expatriate ship owners threatened by the UK government’s imminent crackdown on wealthy non-domiciled foreigners.

“London’s loss will be *Athens’ gain,” said George Voulgarakis, merchant marine minister in Greece’s conservative government.

At a meeting in London with UK-based owners, Mr Voulgarakis pledged to maintain a favourable tax regime for the Greek shipping community, which controls about 15 per cent of the global commercial fleet in tonnage terms.

Athens-based operators of ocean-going ships are not liable for tax on foreign earnings, property purchases or income from funds held in US dollars.

“We’re examining additional measures that would benefit owners who transfer their headquarters to Greece,” Mr Voulgarakis said, without giving details.

About 30 companies have arrived in Athens in the past six years, according to Nikos Tsakos, a board member of the UK-based Greek Shipping Co-operation Council who divides his time between London and Athens.

The trickle of new arrivals is about to become a flood.

“There will be an exodus over the next two or three years,” said one London-based owner.

Athens is already a base for most Greek owners. About 900 operators of ocean-going ships have seen earnings grow at unprecedented rates over the past five years, thanks to the boom in global trade with China and India.

The boom has created more than 30 new Greek shipping billionaires, according to local bankers. ***

“Dozens of smaller operators have also been riding this wave. People worth $30-$40m five years ago are now above the $100m mark,” said one Greek banker closely connected with the industry.

Thanks mainly to improved transport and telecommunications and increasing numbers of well qualified finance and shipping specialists, Athens has become an attractive base.

The quality of life has also improved. “Until recently, it couldn’t compare with western Europe,” said Stefano Nicolaou, a Greek lawyer.

The €4bn ($6bn, £3bn) spent on infrastructure for the 2004 Olympics, including new metro and motorway links from the airport, has transformed the city’s transit systems. With fewer cars in the centre, atmospheric pollution levels have fallen.

Shipping company headquarters are no longer clustered exclusively in Athens’s port of Piraeus but are scattered around city suburbs near to the ship owners’ homes.

“The telecoms have been fixed, commuting isn’t a problem any more, office space is much better quality. Over the past 10 years *Athens has become a shipping centre to compare with Oslo, Singapore or Hong Kong,” said George Economou, chairman of DryShips, an Athens-based company listed on the New York stock exchange.

The wealth created by the Asia boom is also helping to reverse a negative image of Greeks operating elderly, badly maintained ships and showing little concern for the environment.

“Aggressive renewal has improved the quality of the Greek fleet and management has become more corporate,” said Paul Mylonas, chief economist at National Bank of Greece.

A maritime cluster of *shipping services is taking shape as more lawyers, *brokers and insurers move to Athens, joining a well-established ship financing sector, according to Angeliki Frangou, chief executive of Navios Maritime, which is listed in New York.

Ms Frangou, who co-ordinates her company’s operations in Uruguay, the US and Belgium from an office overlooking Piraeus harbour, said shipping is becoming a more prestigious business in Greece.

“The main reason for being in Athens is the wealth of young professional talent that’s available,” she says. “In the City [of London] or New York, you’d be competing with hedge funds or Wall Street. Here, a big shipping company is a top-tier employer.”

[Angelo]

These ship owners should have been based in Greece from before. Excellent news for

Hellas, jobs will be created

[Napalm]

I think London has reached its peak and will only go down hill. Huge parts of the city look like 3rd world slums. I hope all the major foreign business move out. England foreign policy has supported albos and turks. The less of an influence London has the better it is for Greeks and Serbs given the current political alignments.