Chinese shipowners have bought more secondhand tonnage than their rivals in Greece during the past five years, according to data from Clarksons.
Hellenic owners are known as the world’s most respected asset players and have traded more tonnage than their Chinese counterparts overall.
As a pure buyer of vessels, however, Chinese shipowners have edged ahead, according to data from the world’s largest shipbroker.
Alex Springer of Clarksons calculates that Chinese owners have been the leading buyers of ships with 14.9m gt added in the past half decade.
This compares with the 12.6m gt purchased by Hellenic hands, he said in a report.
Stringer also noted the surprising similar breakdown in both newbuilding deliveries and demolition activity by the world’s two largest shipowning nations.
Greek owners have in the past five years taken in new ships with a combined capacity of 45m gt, against the 47.9m heading to China.
Scrapping is also close to level pegging at 15.7m gt from Greece and 14.8m gt from China, Springer said.
Overall, Clarksons pegged the world fleet at 1.35bn gt today, two thirds larger than when the financial crisis struck.
Stringer noted the world’s top six owning nations, Greece, China, Japan, Germany, the US and Norway, control 57% of that tonnage.
