In International Shipping News 07/11/2016
The Cyprus Registry currently ranks as the tenth largest merchant fleet worldwide and the third largest fleet in the European Union with 1,000 ocean-going vessels of a gross tonnage exceeding 20 mln. However, comparing the statistics of the last 15 years, one can easily diagnose that the Cyprus Fleet has not increased for many years, according to Cyprus Shipping Chamber Director General Thomas Kazakos.
“This quantitative ‘stagnation’ remains, despite maintaining the very competitive Shipping Taxation System and the Cyprus Flag in the ‘White Lists’ of quality ship registers in relation to high levels of maritime safety,” Kazakos said, adding that there are a number of reasons to this, amongst them being the imposition of the Turkish embargo on Cyprus ships, as well as the limited promotion of shipping abroad, due to lack of sufficient available public funds.
“Today, Cyprus is the largest third-party shipmanagement centre in Europe and one of the largest crew management centres in the world. A substantial number of shipowning, shipmanagement and shipping related companies maintain fully-fledged offices and conduct their international operations and activities from Cyprus.
“It is estimated that approximately 4% of the world’s fleet and around 20% of global third-party shipmanagement activities are controlled from Cyprus.”
Kazakos said that whilst there was a noticeable increase in shipmanagement revenues during the first half of 2015, with total revenues rising to EUR 464 mln, this amount was slightly decreased in the second half of 2015, which, as turnover (not value added), corresponds to 5.2% of Cyprus’s GDP. This is the second highest level of revenues reported since 2010.
“Cyprus has also recently become more attractive to Greek shipping professionals, with Greek shipowners and shipmanagement companies seeking to transfer part of their operations to Cyprus amidst the uncertainties surrounding the Greek economy.”
“Based on a study which was recently commissioned by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works on the ‘Future of Cyprus Shipping’, we were pleased to note that the contribution of the shipping sector to the Cyprus economy (according to data from the Statistical Service) is even higher than what was originally expected and currently stands at 7% GDP,” Kazakos said.
“In terms of value added, this high level of financial contribution, becomes even more important, if one considers that during the last eight years at least, the freight rates remain internationally too low and a number of international shipping sectors are fighting for their commercial survival, due to the ongoing, unsatisfactory development of world trade. In addition, it is worth mentioning that only in very few other maritime developed countries, does the financial contribution of the domestic shipping industry reach such a high level.”
Source: Financial Mirror
