Объединение ассоциаций судовладельцев Европейского Сообщества (ECSA) недавно опубликовало доклад «Рынок трампового судоходства», подготовленный Clarkson Research Services. В упомянутом докладе содержится развернутая характеристика современного состояния этого рынка в разрезе его функциональных сегментов, а именно: балкеры, «грязные» танкеры, «чистые» танкеры, танкеры-химовозы, суда-газовозы, перевозящие попутный нефтяной газ (LPG), и газовозы, перевозящие природный газ (LNG), а также ролкеры. В связи с этим докладом возникает вопрос о современной терминологии для характеристики функциональной структуры фрахтового рынка. В частности, линейное судоходство, главным образом, контейнерные сервисы, также должны быть включены в аналитику, хотя они и не относятся к трамповому судоходству. Ключевым основанием для аналитики судоходного рынка может быть следующее:
a) тип груза,
b) структура морских перевозок,
c) ценовая дифференциация продукции транспорта,
d) структура по типам судов и их размерениям (провозной способности),
e) морские опасности и риски, а также инвестиционная стратегия,
f) тип субъекта транспортного бизнеса (компании),
g) тип договора (организации рыночных отношений),
h) коммерческая кооперация.
Особый интерес упомянутый доклад вызывает содержащимися в нем статистическими сведениями, из которых следует, что на рынке господствуют малые судовладельческие компании, то есть компании, владеющие девятью и менее судами.
Таким образом, в настоящей статье содержится ответ на поставленный в ней чрезвычайно важный и актуальный вопрос: как можно объяснить важность трампового судоходства в современном мире.
The concept of ‘tramp shipping’ was readily understood by industry participants years ago, but how do we explain its significance in today’s markets? What are the key characteristics of this category? What types and sizes of company are involved? These questions are answered in a report published last month by the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), which is an update of the first edition published more than ten years earlier.
In the new report, entitled ‘The Tramp Shipping Market’, prepared for ECSA by Clarkson Research Services, detailed statistical profiles of large elements of the bulk and specialised vessel markets are presented, together with a background commentary on prominent features. One especially useful item is the vessel ownership pattern statistics, identifying sizes and types of owning companies. Seven sectors are profiled – bulk carriers, crude oil tankers, oil products tankers, chemical tankers, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers and roll on-roll off (ro-ro) vessels. Also provided are detailed figures on the world fleet (all vessel types) and world seaborne trade, showing how these have developed over the past three decades.
An accompanying ECSA press release suggests that “in shipping, an industry unknown to many and invisible to most (people), tramp shipping is arguably one of its least known segments”. The report fulfils a purpose of making the tramp market more visible, and it will prove valuable for students and academics as well as many industry professionals who may find much of the content revealing. It highlights the vast scale of global shipping activities, their varied nature and their significance for the world economy.
Two aspects are especially welcome. Firstly, the narrative, tables, graphs and diagrams of the report provide a concise description of the global tramp shipping market’s salient characteristics. Cargoes, ships and services are discussed. Secondly, some of the up-to-date detailed statistical analyses included are normally available only at substantial cost, making this free-of-charge report particularly valuable.
The statistics showing vessel owning patterns provide useful insights, but the report draws attention to the difficulty of accurately identifying ships’ controlling owners. Other data compilers have also emphasised this problem. The task is a highly challenging exercise, reflecting a huge number of ships in the world fleet, owner changes in many cases, and a frequent absence of sufficient definite evidence to identify who is the ultimate shipowner.
The what and how of tramp shipping
One question immediately arises: is the ECSA report title old, out-of-date terminology? Nowadays the name ‘tramp shipping’ is only infrequently mentioned in current market discussion, as it no longer conveys any specific meaning in common industry parlance. When it was in common usage, many years ago, it had a well-defined meaning and mainly applied to the dry cargo sector, although there were tramp tankers as well as dry cargo tramps. Specialised vessels, by nature of the services rendered, were not normally considered as part of tramping activities. Today’s terminology is bulk, tanker or specialised shipping. A reason for retaining the tramp shipping name, for this report, seems to be that it has been defined for the purpose of applying European Union competition rules, and therefore has gained an authoritative status extending its use.
The stated intention of the report is to provide a briefing about how this market sector is organised and an insight into its competitive economic structure. Tramp shipping is defined as consisting of the bulk and specialised segments, although these are organised differently and have different competitive processes. Liner (predominantly container services) shipping, while not part of tramping, is included in the discussion because it is a partial competitor. Key aspects discussed are: (a) type of product – sea transport service provided; (b) structure of demand for seaborne transportation; (c) sea transport demand differentiation – price and service aspects; (d) supply of sea transport – fleets and transportation capacity; (e) sea transport risk and investment strategy; (f) the companies involved in the shipping business; (g) shipping market features and contractual arrangements; and (h) cooperative agreements.
Statistical revelations
Much of the information in the ECSA report covers the entire world merchant ship fleet, and so has value beyond the tramp shipping category which is the principal focus. From the numerous statistical tables, significant shipping industry indicators can be directly extracted, or derived by simple calculations. A selection follows, providing a view of the industry’s profile, together with some observations based on these.
- World fleet of all cargo-carrying vessels As at February 2015, the world fleet of all cargo-carrying vessels was comprised of 53,101 ships totaling 1,672 million deadweight tonnes (equivalent to 1,083 million gross tonnes). These were owned by 14,122 companies each operating an average of 4 ships. Of these, 11,631 companies owned up to 4 ships. Only 48 companies owned 100 or more ships. The figures confirm impressions of the fragmented nature of global shipowning business, with many small enterprises contributing.
- Fleet growth rates In the ten years from 2004 to 2014, average annual growth in the bulk carrier fleet was 8.9%, while the tanker fleet (all types) grew by 4.7% annually. The container ship fleet expanded by 8.6% annually. Among the specialised fleets, LNG carriers saw the fastest expansion at 11.3% annually. These remarkable average growth rates, over a decade, partly explain why overcapacity has been an enduring feature of several sectors in recent years.
- Global fleet ownership Ownership patterns for the world fleet in seven segments – bulk carriers, crude oil tankers, oil products tankers, chemical tankers, LPG carriers, LNG carriers and ro-ro vessels – are included in the report. Detailed statistical breakdowns are shown based on owning company fleet sizes, and type of ownership. This data provides a fascinating insight into the scale of companies’ activities, and the origins of financing.
- Owning company sizes Statistics show the distribution of company sizes, based on the number of vessels owned (and corresponding deadweight or other capacity). Relatively large companies are a feature of only one of the seven segments. In the bulk carrier fleet, 21 companies (just 1% of the total 1,721 companies in this segment) owned 50 or more ships. However, these 21 company fleets comprised almost one quarter of the overall world bulk carrier fleet’s deadweight capacity, implying that the few large companies owned mainly big bulk carriers. The norm is many companies with small fleets. Companies owning 9 or fewer ships comprised between 80% and 98% of the total number of companies in the seven sectors, as shown by the table. These small companies mainly owned relatively small ships. In the bulk carrier sector, for example, companies owning 9 or fewer ships comprised 1,475 or 86% of the overall companies total, but the deadweight capacity of the ships owned by the 1,475 comprised only 30% of the overall world fleet volume in that sector.
Small shipowning companies predominate
Percentage of number of companies and deadweight capacity in world fleets, at February 2015
| company fleet size | 0-9 ships owned |
| 10-49 ships owned | 50+ ships owned | ||
|
| % of number | deadweight | % of number | deadweight | % of number | deadweight |
|
| of companies | % owned | of companies | % owned | of companies | % owned |
| bulk carriers | 85.7 | 29.9 | 13.0 | 46.5 | 1.3 | 23.4 |
| crude oil tankers | 79.8 | 31.4 | 18.6 | 56.2 | 1.6 | 11.9 |
| oil products tankers | 95.6 | 40.9 | 4.1 | 48.5 | 0.2 | 9.8 |
| chemical tankers | 95.4 | 53.7 | 4.4 | 35.7 | 0.3 | 9.4 |
| LPG carriers* | 91.5 | 55.7 | 8.5 | 44.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| LNG carriers* | 80.6 | 44.0 | 19.4 | 56.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| roll on-roll off ships | 98.2 | 62.4 | 1.7 | 18.0 | 0.0 | 19.0 |
* % of capacity based on cubic metres
source: calculated by Richard Scott from Clarkson Research Services report for ECSA, ‘The Tramp Shipping Market’ (March 2015), 48-61
Top 20 owners Another way of observing market concentration is to look at the market share achieved by the group of largest owners in each sector. These shares vary greatly. The biggest fleet proportion owned by the top 20 owners, as at February 2015, was seen in the LNG sector. In this category, the top 20 comprised 68% of the number of ships (284 ships, within an overall world fleet of 419 ships) and 72% of the related cubic metre capacity. This contrasts sharply with bulk carriers, where a relatively low 17% of the number of ships, equivalent to 26% of the entire fleet’s deadweight tonnage, was owned by the top 20 companies.
- Owning company types The statistics also show what types of ownership are prominent in each sector. Designated ownership types are: independent private companies, public listed companies (quoted on a stock exchange), state interests, cargo interests, financial companies and oil companies. Independent private ownership is highest in the oil products tanker, chemical tanker and ro-ro sectors, where four-fifths of vessel numbers, and 64-75% of the deadweight tonnage is owned by independents. Public listed companies comprised large proportions of the bulk carrier, crude oil tanker, oil products tanker, chemical tanker, LPG and LNG sectors, where 9-26% of the number of vessels and 19-33% of capacity is owned by these companies.
- World seaborne trade growth As the report shows, global seaborne trade has been increasing vigorously in several sectors in the past few years. Average annual growth since 2010 is 5.3% in the dry bulk sector, although only a modest 0.7% for oil. Container cargoes grew by 6.2% annually, while LNG saw a 3.2% average rise. These figures confirm the inaccuracy of many media comments, some appearing even in specialised shipping publications, suggesting that trade has been growing only slowly or has stagnated.
A highly individualistic activity
This selection of highlights derived from the ECSA report emphasises the vast scale of the global merchant (commercial) cargo-carrying fleet of ships and its composition. Also depicted is the fleet’s remarkable growth, amid solid expansion of global seaborne trade in many sectors. A prominent characteristic is that the industry’s bulk and specialised vessel sectors are still predominantly owned and controlled by private independent companies, although there is also sizeable participation by public listed companies. Moreover, the sectors which form what the report describes as ‘tramp shipping’ are highly fragmented, and the typical owning company profile is small, with over four-fifths of companies owning nine or fewer ships.
Source: Article by Richard Scott, Visiting Lecturer, University of Greenwich and MD, Bulk Shipping Analysis
Источник: http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/tramp-shipping-its-profile-in-todays-markets/