The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announced in its latest report on the state of the global shipping industry: global maritime trade, which grew by 3.2% in 2021 and after having gone through the corona situation, in 2022 from the war in Ukraine with Russia was damaged and only increased by 1.4% this year due to the disruption of transport networks and the adoption of anti policies - commercial by some countries...
At the same time, the report predicts that the average growth of global maritime trade will reach 3.3% per year during the period 2023-2027.
UNCTAD has estimated the total number of commercial ships in the world, including tankers, container ships and bulk carriers, at the end of 2022 at 55,370 ships, an increase of 1,064 ships equivalent to 2% compared to to the previous year.
Also, the carrying capacity of these ships is estimated at 2.180 billion tons, an increase of 2% compared to the previous year.
The previous year, the carrying capacity of the world maritime fleet was estimated at 2 billion and 134 million tons.
190,000 tons increase in the capacity of the Iranian maritime fleet
In another part of its report, UNCTAD announced that the total number of Iranian vessels is 255.
In 2021, 8 new ships were added to Iran's maritime commercial fleet, and in 2022, an additional ship was added to Iran's fleet, bringing the number of Iranian ships to 255.
Similarly, the cargo carrying capacity of Iran's maritime fleet increased by 1% or 190,000 tons in 2022 and reached 19 million 441 thousand tons.
In 2021, the carrying capacity of Iranian ships was estimated at 19 million and 251,000 tons.
The Iranian maritime fleet is larger than the French fleet and a third of the American fleet
In 2022, Iran was able to maintain its position as the world's 22nd maritime commercial power.
A comparison of Iran with other countries shows that this country ranks 22nd in the world in terms of sea freight transport capacity, as in recent years.
The capacity of Iran's maritime fleet is even greater than that of the three industrialized countries of the Group of Seven, namely France, Italy and Nevada, and America, as the world's largest economy, has only three times Iran's maritime trade capacity.
Countries like the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Brazil also have a smaller maritime fleet than Iran. The capacity of the French maritime fleet is 15,335,000 tonnes.
According to experts, Iran's possession of a large and diverse naval fleet played an important role in the cancellation of US sanctions against the country, and by using this large fleet, Iran was able to neutralize in a large measures the economic sanctions against it.
Greece has the largest maritime fleet in the world
According to the UNCTAD report, Greece has the largest maritime fleet in the world in terms of cargo transport capacity. The carrying capacity of Greek ships is 384 million tons.
The total number of Greek ships is estimated at 4,870.
China with a fleet carrying capacity of 277 million tons and Japan with 236 million tons rank third.
Singapore and Hong Kong are ranked fourth and fifth.
The ranking of some other countries is: Germany 7, England 10, America 11, Turkey 16, India 20 and Russia 21.