Greece continues to dominate global shipping, maintaining its position as the world’s top ship-owning nation by capacity, according to UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport 2025.
By January 2025, Greek shipowners managed 16.4% of global dead weight tonnage (dwt) with 5,124 vessels, tovima.com, has reported. Only 562 fly the Greek flag, while 4,555 operate under foreign registries. Together with China and Japan, Greece represents over 40% of global fleet capacity, nearly a third of all ships, and 33.1% of fleet value. The ten largest ship-owning nations hold 67.3% of capacity and 65.6% of value.
While Greece leads in tonnage, the report shows Chinese owners now control the largest share by value at 12.4%. Combined with Hong Kong, China’s share reaches 20.2%, surpassing Greece in overall ownership.
The UNCTAD review warns the industry has not “witnessed such sustained disruption to the arteries of global commerce since the closure of the Suez Canal in 1967.” Shipping faces rerouted trade, longer distances, port delays, and growing security risks. Meanwhile, rapid technological, environmental, and regulatory changes are transforming operations.
A key development is the International Maritime Organization’s upcoming Net-zero Framework, set for October 2025, which could “reshape even further how ships are built, fuelled and operated.” The review notes that while “alternative fuel vessels now represent more than half of the ship tonnage of new orders, though over 90 per cent of the active fleet by tonnage still runs on conventional fuels. This gap between ambition and reality defines our challenge.”
For Greece, the findings underline both resilience and pressure. Its unmatched capacity must adapt to stricter decarbonisation, digitalisation, and rising competition from Asia—factors that will shape whether global shipping emerges stronger or more fragmented.
Source: tovima.com
