XN000022-1980-04-18 — Page 17

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SHIPPING AND THE RECION

Characteristics of most of the region has been a steady shift of

resources from the primary sector, to the secondary sector (that is to say

Manufacturing) to the tertiary sector. Shipping, of course, is a telling

example of the move into this last sector. Just as the area of fastest

economic growth has tended to move from Western Europe and North America

to the Far East, so has the growth of ownership of shipping. In the last 15 years the tonnage registered in Europe doubled (from 80 million gross tons to 159 million gross tons) and that registered in the USA actually declined (from 21 million gross tons to 18 million gross tons), but the

tonnage registered in the Far East increased 4 times (from 16 million

gross tons to 72 million gross tons), Getting on for a fifth of the

world's tonnage is now registered in this region.

second largest registered fleet in the world.

Japan now has the

And at least four countries

in the region, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Philippines and the

People's Republic of China, have built up respectable fleets in the last

15 years from virtually nothing.

Of course in terms of beneficial ownership, the picture is

end I infinitely more complex. But if Hong Kong is anything to go by

shall be returning to Hong Kong's role later the movement into the Far

Fast appears to be much more marked than simply national registers would

indicate.

In common with their counterparts in other maritime countries

which have developed sizeable fleets from scratch, most Far East shipowners

started business as secondhand shipowners in the late 1940s. They enjoyed a number of

advangages over shipowners elsewhere in the world. In the first place, available to

them was an ample supply of seamen who were ready and willing to go to Beɛ

Secondly, insurance premiums were generally reasonable and at that time

to obtain insurance for secondhand ships was not difficult.

Thirdly,

/repair costs