Liberia replaces Panama as the world’s largest flag

Liberia replaces Panama as the world’s largest flag
Sam Chambers July 28, 2023 https://splash247.com/liberia-replaces-panama-as-the-worlds-largest-flag/

For the first time in 30 years Panama is no longer the world’s largest ship registry. Rival Liberia has overhauled the Central American nation in terms of gross tonnage in new data issued by Clarksons Research.

The Liberian flag now has a 2.2m gt lead over Panama at the top of the registry rankings, its fleet growing by 5.6% so far this year, according to Clarksons. In terms of the number of ships on their books, Panama retains a healthy lead of more than 3,200 ships.

Looking at the the list of the top 30 flags, the big losers in the year to date have been Malta and Cyprus, likely as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine, while the flag that has grown the most in percentage terms by some distance has been Germany, a nation that is showing signs of having finally thrown off the maritime shackles that has dogged growth for more than a decade.