The Maritime Economist Magazine Spring 2015 | Page 14

THEMARITIME Economist INPLAIN Maritime country profiles Which countries specialize in which maritime businesses? Dr. Jan Hoffmann, Chief, Trade Facilitation Section, UNCTAD ME Mag Throughout most of history, “maritime nations” had their own national fleets, which were built, owned, and manned by nationals of the same country whose flag the ship flew. Today, a typical cargo carrying ship may well be built in Korea, owned by a German investment fund, operated by a Danish container shipping line and fly the flag or the Marshall Islands. The crew may be Philippine who are on contract through a crewing agency in Cyprus. The ship may be “classed” by a technical certification society from Norway and be insured in London. Once the ship becomes too expensive to maintain, it will most likely be recycled in Bangladesh, India or Pakistan. Different countries participate in different maritime businesses, 14 and policy makers have an interest to identify those maritime businesses where their countries participate at present, or might participate in future. Market shares Let us start out by looking at the market shares of 8 selected countries in some key maritime businesses1. The following charts show each country’s share in the world’s population, economic output (i.e. their Gross Domestic Product, GDP), and merchandise trade, as well as 6 maritime businesses2: 1. Ship owning 2. Ship registration, i.e. the flag the ship is flying 1 The 8 countries are chosen as examples for being representative of a range of different maritime profiles, each specializing in a different set of sectors. The author would be happy to share more examples and data by email ([email protected]). 2 Sources: GDP population and trade: UNCTAD statistics. Ship owning, registration