The latest World Fleet Monitor published by Clarksons Research confirms a switch in the leaderboard of shipping registers with Donald Trump’s trade war with China seeing Singapore leapfrog Hong Kong into fourth spot.
After a very tough year having been caught in the crosshairs of the trade spat between Beijing and Washington, which saw top owners such as Seaspan and Pacific Basin, relocate, Hong Kong authorities have used this week as a reset with many top names from global shipping in town to hear the Special Administrative Region’s pitch during Hong Kong Maritime Week.
November 1 data from Clarksons, published yesterday, shows the Hong Kong flag has lost 12.6% of its fleet this year, with Singapore growing by 24.7%, the two registries swapping places. From October 14 for three weeks, the US and China imposed higher port fees in a tit-for-tat trade tussle that came to a quick end following discussions between Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jingping. The two leaders agreed to postpone the port fees for a year, but the concern about the potential financial hit leading owners could have taken in the months leading up to their brief introduction saw Seaspan, the world’s largest container tonnage provider, and Pacific Basin, a giant in dry bulk, relocate to Singapore.
Rocked by the departures of two of the territory’s biggest shipowners, the Hong Kong Ship Registry has decided to change its rules. The secretary for transport and logistics, Mable Chan said earlier this week she was determined to enhance the flexibility of ship registration in Hong Kong, announcing plans to allow dual registration whereby Hong Kong-registered ships can be bareboat chartered under another flag.
Speaking Monday night at the welcome dinner of 6th US-China Hong Kong Forum, John Lee, the territory’s chief executive, hit out at US tariffs, saying: “Dialogue is always better than confrontation. Collaboration is more effective than unilateralism.”
