船队注册港
2014.06.11
历年来中国船东因种种问题而将部份船只注册到香港和巴拿马. 这些外国旗和本国旗的百分比可从下面英国克拉臣的统计看到.
China’s Fleet: Flagging Up The Choices
In International Shipping News 30/05/2014
Over the last seven years, the overall Chinese-owned fleet increased by an annual average growth rate of 12% to reach 117m GT at the start of 2014. This growth helped China to overtake Germany as the 3rd largest shipowning nation in 2011 in terms of tonnage. Over this period, there have also been a number of trends in where Chinese owners have chosen to flag their vessels.
National Flag Maintains Share
As shown on the Graph of the Month, the Chinese flag remains the most popular choice for Chinese owners, accounting for 41% of the Chinese owned fleet at the start of 2014. This proportion has decreased since 2007 (when 46% of Chinese tonnage was flagged domestically) due to the high rate of deliveries of vessels after 2008 registered with ‘open’ flags.
Nevertheless, the significant share of the Chinese flag has been partly maintained by the large volume of Chinese coastal trade, particularly in coal and containers, resulting from the geographically uneven distribution of natural resources and regional economic development. Domestic cargo interests have invested in Chinese-flagged tonnage, while shipping companies with Chinese-flagged vessels have increased flexibility to trade domestically.
Out in the Open
However, flagging vessels with China is proving more expensive than with some ‘open’ flags due to domestic taxation in excess of 20%. Rapid growth in Chinese imports has driven many Chinese owners with internationally-trading vessels to flag these ships elsewhere. The role of the Hong Kong flag has increased particularly strongly, with the share of Chinese-owned tonnage flagged in Hong Kong rising from 18% at the start of 2007 to 33% in 2014, overtaking Panama as the largest open flag in China’s fleet in 2010. While the Chinese owned and Panama-flagged fleet grew strongly between 2007 and 2011 (on average by 20% p.a.), it has recently decreased, totalling 17.3m GT at the start of 2014, down 11% from start 2011. This compares to 85% growth in the Chinese owned and Hong Kong-flagged fleet in the same period.
Hong Kong’s continued growth has been driven by several factors, including the local advantages presented by many Chinese shipowners having regional offices in Hong Kong. Hong Kong-flagged vessels are also able to sail in some inland seas including the Qiongzhou Strait without pre-declaration, and pay lower fees at the port of Hong Kong. Additionally, the Hong Kong flag state has an excellent survey history in Port State Control inspections, ranking 3rd in the Paris MoU performance list in 2010-12.
Flagging Behind?
Chinese owners may continue to register greater numbers of vessels with the Hong Kong flag to take advantage of these benefits. However, China has been attempting to convince more owners to flag domestically, introducing demolition subsidies for Chinese flagged vessels, and approving the Shanghai Free Trade Zone in late 2013, which offers greater tax incentives for international cargo vessels registering at the port. If successful, these policies could help the Chinese flag to increase its share of the fast-growing Chinese fleet once again.
Source: Clarksons
