Monrovia – Over the last few days there have been wide spread reports about Liberia overtaking Panama and becoming the highest ship registry in the world. What are the requirements to be considered the largest ship registry in the world? How has Liberian surpassed Panama?
Explained By: Varney Kelvin Sirleaf | LVL Fact Checker
This news, which has been making rounds on both traditional and social media, relied on a report from Clarksons Research – a Maritime research institution that provides data on maritime related activities.
While many international media outlets that published this report stated that Liberia lead over Panama is in terms of “gross tonnage”, local media headlines did not provide the specifics about the lead.
FrontPage Africa published a press release on July 31, 2023 with a headline “Liberia Becomes the World’s Largest Flag”. The first paragraph of the release stated that Liberia’s new achievement was in terms of gross tonnage.
New Republic Liberia also published the release with the headline “Liberia Becomes New Leader in Ship Registry” and provided details in the body of the story that the West African country lead was in term of gross tonnage.
Many social media users shared this information but failed to provide the details, thereby spreading a wrong context about the country’s maritime feat.
What is Gross Tonnage?
According to maritime experts, Gross tonnage (gt) is a measure of a ship’s overall internal volume and is determined by dividing by 100 the contents, in cubic feet, of the vessel’s enclosed spaces. GT applies to the vessel, not to the cargo. It measures the ship’s volume and has nothing to do with weight. It is based on two variables: V, the ship’s total volume in cubic meters (m3), and K, a multiplier based on the ship volume.
Ship registration, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), plays an imperative function towards the safety and security of the maritime transport, it is a process which indicates that a state has the right to protect a ship in international laws.
Does Liberia Have the World’s Largest Ship Registry?
To ascertain the correctness of the report that Liberia has become the largest ship registry in the world, we inquired from Clarksons Research through an email.
In its reply, Clarksons Research’s Managing Director Stephen Gordon confirmed that their mid-year data for 2023 shows that Liberia is at 246.5 million gross tonnage ahead of Panama’s 244.3 million gross tonnage.
The Clarksons Research also said that the data covers ship size 100 gross tonnage and the majority of cargo and passenger ship types, and that its estimate this year shows Liberia is up with 5.6% by tonnage and Panama by 2.3%.
Clarksons Research also confirms that “gross tonnage reflects the aggregate size of capacity of the vessels involved. It is a standardized measure of a ship’s internal volume”.
While the Clarksons Research mid-year data shows that Liberia is slightly above Panama in terms of gross tonnage, it also reported that Panama is bigger than Liberia in terms of the number of registered ships. In terms of the number of ships on their books, Panama retains a healthy lead over Liberia with more than 3,200 ships.
We also contacted the IMO via email inquiring what is required for a country to be considered the world’s largest ship registry. The IMO, through its Media and Communications Officer, Liz Shaw replied our inquiry stating that to be consider the world’s largest ship registry, “It’s based on the gross tonnage of a Flag administration, not the number of vessels”
Conclusion
Based on these facts explain above and considering that to be consider the world’s largest ship registry is by gross tonnage and not the number of registered ships. It is correct that Clarksons Research mid-year data shows that Liberia has overtaken Panama as the world’s largest ship registry with 246.5 million gross tonnage over Panama 244.3 million gross tonnage.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.