Billionaire John Fredriksen leads the Norwegian shipowning community, which heads to Nor-Shipping with a combined fleet worth almost $60bn, according to the world’s largest shipbroker Clarksons.
It counts almost 3,000 vessels in the hands of Norwegian owners, with the nation boasting the sixth-largest fleet globally by gross tons and with the world-leading position in chemical tankers.
In addition, Norway is a hub for insurance, broking and finance, with more than one-quarter of all cash raised by shipping in the capital markets last year flowing from the Oslo system.
Steve Gordon, managing director of Clarksons Research, told TradeWinds: “Norway remains an important maritime cluster across ship ownership, ship finance, insurance, equipment and offshore.”
Fredriksen, with 218 ships of a collective 16.21 million gross tons across his various companies, is by far the largest shipowner in Norway — a nation in which almost half of the fleet by capacity is owned by the largest five owners.
Car carrier giant Wallenius Wilhelmsen is ranked in second spot by gross tonnage, with Leif Hoegh & Co, Tor Olav Troim’s Golar LNG and Trygve Seglem’s Knutsen NYK making up the top five.
Collectively, the quintet owns 376 ships of 27.7 million gross tons — 46% of the total Norwegian fleet.
KG Jebsen, Nordic American Tankers, Kjell Inge Rokke’s Aker companies, Gearbulk and Stolt-Nielsen complete the top 10, according to Clarksons.
In all, Norwegian shipowners have 2,932 vessels of 60.4 million gross tons, worth $59bn, Gordon explained.
Globally, the Norwegian-owned fleet lags only behind world leader Greece, China, Japan, Germany and the US, and is ahead of South Korea, Singapore, Italy and Denmark, the Clarksons data shows.
Oslo is the largest shipowning cluster in Norway, with 105 different shipowners owning 600 vessels on the water and a further 42 under construction, according to Clarksons. This places the Norwegian capital as the 14th largest city globally in a list heading by Athens and its 883 separate shipowners.
Norway’s second shipowning hub of Bergen is ranked 23rd globally in terms of gross tons owned. However, in terms of shipowners, it is almost level with Oslo, with 101 shipowners and 668 ships owned from the west coast city.
Norwegian shipowners have a long history in the tanker market and their 536 tankers today still account for the largest slice of the fleet at 39% in gross tons. This position includes its pole position in chemical tankers, backed by major names Stolt and Odfjell.
Bulkers, of which 338 are owned from Norway, make up a further 29% of the capacity, alongside 461 cruise and passengerships, 112 gas carriers, 75 containerships and 24 ro-ros, according to data provided to TradeWinds.
The ability of Norwegian shipowners to invest in tonnage is helped by the country having one of the world’s best capital markets systems, with approaching $50bn in new equity raised this decade, Clarksons figures show. The number includes $3.72bn 2018 and a further $1.62bn so far this year.
“In 2018, 28% of global capital market shipping equity was raised in Oslo, albeit it was a weak year overall for the capital markets,” Gordon said.
With access to capital at speed, Norwegian shipowners have been among the most active globally in the sale-and-purchase market in the past 12 months, Clarksons said.
The 3.3 million gross tons purchased, and an equal amount sold, placed Norway behind just Greece, China and Japan, the shipbroker calculates.
Despite the sharp downturn suffered in the past few years, offshore remains a major area of interest with 595 offshore vessels owned by Norwegians.
Across offshore, Norwegian owners are the fourth-largest by number, behind the US, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, the Clarksons numbers show.
However, Norwegian owners hold a leading market share position in subsea support and large anchor handling tug supply vessels above 8,000 bhp, Gordon said.
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