Growth of the World Fleet

Most recent update: October 11, 2010.

Source: Lloyd's Register of Shipping's "World Fleet Statistics" (now published by IHS Fairplay)

The table below shows the growth since 1914 of the world fleet of self-propelled seagoing commercial ships of at least 100 gross tons.  The chart shows the trends in the data since World War II.

Notes:

(1) The number of ships in the world fleet passed the 100,000 milestone last year.

(2) The reason the average size is so low is that only a bit over half the ships in the fleet are cargo ships: close to 25% are fishing vessels and the rest are OSVs, tugs, ferries, etc.

(3) The number of ships grows at about half the rate at which total tonnage grows: this is partly because the average ship gets bigger every year and partly because the industry gets more efficient every year.

(4) The chart clearly shows the explosion in the size of the fleet in the 1970s: this would have driven an increase in demand for replacement 30 years later even without the needs of the Chinese economy.