November 20, 2008

Indian flagged vessels tonnage goes down

Exim News Service cited Mr MK Banger, a marine consultant for the Maharashtra Maritime Board, as saying that the overall tonnage of Indian flagged vessels has sunk from a high of 9 million gross tonnes in 2000 to 8.84 million gross tonnes as on June 1st 2008.

As per report, the decline is being attributed mainly to the scrapping of ageing vessels and the preference for foreign flagging by ship owners.

Many national carriers, including Essar Shipping and the Shipping Corporation of India have already scrapped older vessels ahead of the delivery of newer ones which will take a few years for delivery.

Several shipping lines have started registering vessels under flags of convenience, such as with the Marshall Islands to avoid the harsh maritime policies imposed by the Union government particularly in terms of a plethora of taxes.