This change can be clearly observed in the latest "Group of Total Ship Assets in the World's Top Ten Ship Owners Countries and Regions" released by the ship valuation platform VesselsValue.

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2025-04-10

For more than a year, the markets of container ships and bulk ships have continued to be hot, which has had an important impact on the total value of the fleet's assets. This change can be clearly observed in the latest "Group of Total Ship Assets in the World's Top Ten Ship Owners Countries and Regions" released by the ship valuation platform VesselsValue.

China has become the world's largest ship asset country

China surpassed Japan and ranked first in the "Top Ten Ship Owners Countries and Regions of the World" for the first time. According to VesselsValue statistics, as of early November 2021, the total value of ships operated by Chinese shipowners was approximately US$191 billion, rising from the last second place (February 2021). Olivia Watkins, chief shipping analyst at VesselsValue, analyzed: "The hottest markets of container ships and bulk carriers (high freight rates/rentals) have led to a sharp increase in the market value of these two major types, which in turn has a huge impact on the total value of ship assets of each ship owner country and region."

Chinese ship owners have the largest container ship fleet. In terms of gross tonnage, the total capacity of China's container fleet accounts for about 15% of the global total capacity. At the same time, with the explosion of market demand, the rise in container ship freight rates has also prompted the entire container transportation industry to start a new round of ordering boom. According to incomplete statistics, in the first 11 months of 2021, there were about 516 container ship orders worldwide, of which 46% were owned by liner companies such as COSCO Shipping (including Oriental Overseas ) and Haifeng International.

The surge in short-term orders is just a phenomenon that has helped China become the world's largest marine asset country, and a trend can be seen in a horizontal observation. In recent years, the scale of my country's container fleet has grown rapidly. From 2015 to 2020, the annual compound growth rate of capacity in total tonnage was as high as 16%. The shipbuilding boom that occurred from 2010 to 2012 and the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the Scrap and Renewal of Old Transportation Ships and Single-Cast Tankers" which began in 2010 and its subsequent related details accelerated the pace of renewal of my country's fleet. According to Clarksons statistics, the average age of my country's container ship fleet was 8.9 years at the end of August 2021, which is lower than the global average age (10.3 years). The young age structure reflects to a certain extent the demand for container ships by our shipowners, and in turn explains that it is only a matter of time before my country becomes the world's largest ship asset country.

Throughout 2021, the demand for bulk carrier market was also released. Due to the existence of many objective factors such as the COVID-19 epidemic, crew changes, and geopolitical , the number of waiting ships outside the port has always been at a high level, which has led to a tight supply of capacity. And tight capacity has driven rates to soar. The Baltic dry bulk freight index (BDI) broke through 5,600 points in October 2021, an increase of more than three times from 1,400 points at the beginning of the year, setting a record high in 13 years. In subdivision, the daily rent of Cape of Good Hope bulk carriers rose from US$16,000 at the beginning of 2021 to US$86,000 in October of that year, an increase of up to 420%. Although the Panamax bulk carrier freight index (BPI) continued to fall at the end of November 2021, the average daily rent remained above $20,000, and remained at its highest price level in 10 years. The daily rent of large and flexible bulk carriers has also increased by more than four times in a year, reaching US$45,000 at one time. The unprecedented increase in freight rates depicts the market demand for bulk carriers, which also laid the foreshadowing for high value. my country's bulk carrier fleet size accounts for 20% of the global total, and in my country, the total tonnage of bulk carriers accounts for 56% of the total tonnage of ships. According to VesselsValue statistics, from January to October 2021, the total value of my country's bulk fleet almost doubled, from US$28 billion to US$53 billion.

Japan ranking is ranked behind China by relying on the automobile fleet

. During the statistical period, Japanese ship owners had approximately US$187 billion in ship assets. Although the rankings declined, Japan's national total ship value increased by more than US$70 billion. In addition to the contribution of the high value of container ships and bulk carriers, the increase in the value of automobile transport ships is another main reason.

The total value of automobile transport ships owned by Japanese ship owners is currently about US$13.4 billion, an increase of about 83.5% from US$7.3 billion in early 2021. Why does the value of car transport ships have increased so significantly?

is first of all demand, which is the origin of all phenomena.For countries or regions with underdeveloped automobile manufacturing, the demand for maritime automobile transportation is ongoing. Japan is a major automobile exporter. Its positioning as a major automobile exporter has also allowed Japanese companies to increase their investment in the automobile transport ship market. From 2009 to 2019, the world's top five automobile transport ships were ordered by the Kuomintang and a total of 107 new automobile transport ships, of which 30.8% (33) came from Japanese ship owners. Surprising trends appeared last year. From January to October 2021, there have been 40 orders for automobile transport ships worldwide, and there are 16 alternative orders. Think deeper, the reduction in single-ship load capacity will also increase the overall voyage demand of the ship. Nowadays, the demand for pure electric vehicles in various countries is growing at a faster pace, and the bicycle quality of pure electric vehicles is heavier than traditional fuel vehicles. Therefore, when the demand for pure electric vehicles increases significantly, the number of cars that the automobile transport fleet can carry will be relatively reduced, which requires more automobile transport ships to exist in the market.

Like other fields, the impact of demand growth on ship value is positive when there is no extremely obvious imbalance in the supply and demand situation. In August 2021, the daily rental of automobile transport ships reached the highest level since 2008, with the one-year lease of 5000CEU and 6500CEU ships reaching US$24,000 and US$29,000 respectively. Pareto Securities AS analyzed that the rental price of nearly $30,000 per day is more than three times the average daily rent in the past five years, a sign of a booming cargo market. VesselsValue said in the report that the current car transport ship market is a " seller market ". Some operators are led by the huge profits and benefits brought by the market environment and rent or sell their own ships. The value of car transport ships with 10-year-old and 20-year-old has increased significantly. According to public information, the final transaction price of a 6400CEU car transport ship sold in June 2021 was US$23 million, while in April of that year, the transaction price of a same-type ship was only US$13.8 million. In addition to the surge in orders and the rising prices of second-hand ships, the value of automobile transport ships has also "risen" due to the development of large-scale and low-carbonization. The scale of the automobile transport fleets of Japan Mail Ship, merchant ship Mitsui and Kawasaki Motorcycle account for a huge proportion of the global similar fleet size, and their actions are considered to be the weather vane in this field. Following Japan Mail Ship and Merchant Ship Mitsui, Kawasaki Steamboat also announced that it will deploy a total of 8 7000CEU liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered vehicle transport ships from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2025. VesselsValue noted that Japanese shipyards have increased the cost of 7000CEU LNG-powered vehicle transport ships to $100 million, an increase of about $10 million from last year.

In the "Top Ten Worldwide Ship Owners and Regions Total Ship Assets Ranking", Japanese ship owners also have the highest value liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) transport fleet. In view of market-related factors, the total value reached US$7.4 billion, an increase of approximately US$1.6 billion from the previous statistical period.

supports the liquid assets of Greece Greece ranking

China has become the world's largest ship asset country

Japan ranking is ranked behind China by relying on the automobile fleet

supports the liquid assets of Greece Greece ranking

Since January 2021, the total value of Greek ship owners' ship assets has increased from US$93.2 billion to US$145 billion, which makes it ranked third in the "Top Ten Ship Owners Countries and Regions Total Ship Assets Ranking". "Greece is the world's largest oil tanker fleet owner. Although the revenue in this sector has been in the low range, we have seen a rise in spot prices. This has increased the asset value of the entire oil tanker fleet." Olivia Watkins said that since the beginning of 2021, the new shipbuilding prices and second-hand ship trading prices of ultra-large tankers (VLCC), Suez type tankers (Suezmax) and Alfra type tankers (Aframax) have increased by 20%-30%. Data provided by Gibson, a ship brokerage firm, shows that the operating ton-km cost and total ton-km cost of the 270,000-dollar oil tanker benchmark transaction (TD3C transaction) between the representative Middle East -China fell to US$500 per day in the first half of 2021, the lowest level since the company's record in 2000. “Compared with the first half of 2020, crude oil exports in the Middle East that supported global VLCC transactions fell to 15.25 million barrels per day. The reduction in demand was concurrent with large supply. Since July 2020, 37 VLCCs have been delivered worldwide, and only 6 have been sold for recycling."At the end of November 2021, the international crude oil market price "collapsed" - US crude oil futures prices fell 13% a day, the largest daily drop of that year. Subsequently, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its partners suspended plans to increase production by another 400,000 barrels per day in January this year to gradually resume production suspension during the epidemic. Some analysts hinted that by the end of 2002, OPEC increased production by 1.5 million barrels per day, increasing VLCC rent from $16,000/day in the first three quarters of 2002 to $60,000/day in the first quarter of the second year. "We conservatively infer that the daily rent of VLCC will reach $45,000/day. After that, when shipowners must start to comply with existing ship carbon emission targets in 2023, most capacity has to slow down and the oil tanker transportation market will begin to tighten supply. "At present, the price of new VLCC shipbuilding has increased by about US$2 million month-on-month to nearly US$10 million, and the prices of new Suez oil tankers and Alfra oil tankers have also reached US$63 million and US$50.5 million. "In comparison with today's new shipbuilding prices, shipyards will gradually be filled with container ships, and the construction space for oil tankers will be reduced. In short, the supply and demand prospects are worthy of everyone's attention. "Nevertheless, the average growth rate of fleet capacity in the entire oil tanker transportation market will reach about 2% in the next few years.

Currently, Greece is still the world's largest ship owner, with 4,901 various ships, accounting for about 19.42% of the global fleet's total tonnage. From the perspective of segments, Greek ship owners have about 30.25% of the global oil tanker capacity, as well as about 20.04% of bulk carrier capacity and about 15.58% of the LNG/LPG transport capacity. Due to high rentals, the value of Greek bulk carrier fleet almost doubled last year, from US$28 billion to US$53 billion. At the same time, the Greeks are still active in the trading market, and the bulk carriers they purchase account for about a quarter of the global bulk carrier trading in 2021. In recent years, Greece La Shipping companies have increased their procurement efforts for LNG transport ships, which is one of the most valuable ship types. Given the above data, it is not difficult to understand why the value of Greek fleets has increased. In addition, the spot rate of LNG transport ships soared - BP (BP) rented an LNG transport ship at a rate of $350,000 per day, setting the most expensive rental record in history - the value of Greek LNG transport fleet has increased by about $2 billion since the beginning of 2021.

Norwegian

is the latest "Top Ten Ship Owners Countries and Regions in the World" Norway is a very distinctive country. After falling from fifth place in 2020 to ninth place in February 2021, it fell another position and is currently ranked tenth. Norway's decline in ranking was blamed for the decline in the value of offshore platforms and related ships. The prologue of the story began with the plunge of international oil prices in 2014. At that time, market research institutions had predicted the reality that the offshore drilling market would enter a downturn. However, the outbreak of the epidemic once again raised the downside risks of the market. In 2020, Valaris, the world's largest offshore drilling platform contractor, announced that it would seek bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Act - this was the third offshore drilling giant forced to go bankrupt that year. According to incomplete estimates, 20 From 20 to 2021, up to 10% of global offshore drilling companies have been cancelled, and the offshore drilling market impairment losses reached US$10 billion in the first half of 2021 alone. Although offshore drilling contractors expect the market to recover as soon as possible, the unprecedented crisis has made oil and gas producers very wary of new investments, and the costly offshore drilling projects are the first to be shelved. It is foreseeable that international oil prices fluctuate in the low-price range will further weaken the recovery expectations of the offshore drilling market, which may remain in a depression for a long time in the future. As we all know, most of Norway's investment in the shipping industry is in the field of mobile drilling platforms. As oil giants have significantly cut capital expenditures, drilling operations and platform projects have been terminated, suspended or postponed, which directly led to Borr Drilling fleet lost $500 million in value.

The new crown epidemic, international oil prices, economic recession, investment transfer and other factors are superimposed. The previously expected road to moderate recovery of the offshore engineering platform market is becoming increasingly difficult, and this difficulty directly affects the offshore engineering-related ship market.Judging from the transaction structure, it has become the norm for orders for drilling platforms and offshore support ships. From the past three years, the proportion of global drilling platform transactions has dropped from 50%-60% during the peak period between 2011 and 2013 to 5%-11%. Although the transaction volume of offshore engineering-related ships can account for 25%-45% of the total, 80%-90% of the number of offshore engineering-related ships is offshore wind power , engineering construction and other non-oil and gas fields. The transaction ratio of real offshore engineering-supported ships is only 2%-8%.

Once the number of active drilling platforms or exploration and mining activities decreases, market pressure will be applied to the offshore industry support ship industry chain. The result is that additional financial pressure will overwhelm the fragile ship owners, and companies face corporate bankruptcy, debt restructuring, refinancing or structural restructuring. This will in turn force ship owners to dispose of non-performing assets, which will ultimately put pressure on the asset value. Perhaps we may not see Norway in the next release of the "Top Ten Global Ship Owners Countries and Regions Total Ship Assets Ranking".

Source: China Ship Inspection

Judging from the transaction structure, it has become the norm for orders for drilling platforms and offshore support ships. From the past three years, the proportion of global drilling platform transactions has dropped from 50%-60% during the peak period between 2011 and 2013 to 5%-11%. Although the transaction volume of offshore engineering-related ships can account for 25%-45% of the total, 80%-90% of the number of offshore engineering-related ships is offshore wind power , engineering construction and other non-oil and gas fields. The transaction ratio of real offshore engineering-supported ships is only 2%-8%.

Source: China Ship Inspection

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