As this excellent, comprehensive and incredibly detailed review of the market and its component ships shows very clearly, the global market of tankers of more than 10,000 DWT continues to grow at roughly three per cent per annum. At the end of 2020 there were some 7,171 such vessels in existence, and trading. Collectively, they amount to almost 642 million DWT.
This is a massive industry sector that seems to survive and generally thrive despite the continuing attacks on and predictions of doom for the fossil fuel sector that it serves. The green zealots, despite all their noise, have failed to slow the sector significantly, if at all.
Tankers are a truly global business and, while owners are concentrated in a handful of countries, their ships operate practically everywhere. They do so safely, reliably, and reasonably economically. They seem likely to continue doing so for the foreseeable future despite the probably largely Covid-19 induced fall in demand that the industry experienced in 2020.
All this and much, much more is detailed in this fabulous book which is one of a whole "fleet" of registers that the world's largest ship broker produces and improves so assiduously each year. They are invaluable.
Editors: Clarksons Research Services
Available from Clarksons Research Services, London, UK.
Web: www.crsl.com
