Facts About Shipping Industry

1. Over 97% of the ocean containers are manufactured in China.

2. Average life of a 20ft container is 20 years. For a 40ft container the average life is even more.

3. While on the sea, 2/3 of ships have no means of communication and less than 10% have internet.

4. A large cargo ship uses 150-250 tons of fuel per day and requires as much fuel as 3,770 smart cars per kilometre.

5. The World’s 3 Largest Fleets belong to Greece, Japan and Germany. To put this in perspective, Japan has 3,962 ships in its fleet, Greece has 3,032 and Germany has 2,321. China is in fourth place and the United States is in fifth place.

6. If all the containers in the world were to be lined up on one ship, that ship would stretch halfway around the planet.

7. At least 20 million containers are currently traveling across the oceans at this moment in time. The latest figures show that around 60% of these containers are traveling to and from Asia.

8. Shipping is still the safest form of commercial transport. As a matter of fact, it was one of the first industries to adopt widely implemented international safety standards (in the 19th century).

9. The ocean freight industry is one of the oldest, most effective, and most cost-efficient methods of transporting goods around the world. 

10. Approximately 1.5 million people are employed in the maritime sector.