Download The UK shipping industry - Marine Socio

The Marine Socio-Economics Project (MSEP)
is a project funded by The Tubney Charitable Trust and coordinated by NEF
(the new economics foundation) in partnership with the WWF, the MCS,
the RSPB, and The Wildlife Trusts. The project aims to build socio-economic
capacity and cooperation between NGOs and aid their engagement with all
sectors using the marine environment.
The UK shipping industry
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The UK shipping industry involves the transport of
passengers and freight by sea.
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Shipping continues to be the dominant mode
of transport for UK international trade, moving
around 95% of international goods to and from
the UK by sea.1
The industry has, in general, grown steadily
over the past decade, following the introduction
of the tonnage tax in 2000 (which allows UKbased shipping companies to have their taxable
profits from shipping activities determined
according to the carrying capacity – tonnage
– of their vessels).2 Almost all of the top 10
shipping nations, by owned fleet-size, operate
tonnage tax regimes. Since the introduction of
the tonnage tax in the UK, the previous decline
in the size of the UK shipping industry has been
dramatically reversed, with a six-fold growth in
the UK trade shipping fl­ eet.
The turnover of the shipping industry amounted
to nearly £13 billion in 2011, according to the
Chamber of Shipping.3
Shipping is also part of a much wider maritime
services cluster, which contributes nearly £27
billion (2012) to the UK’s GDP and supports
around half a million jobs throughout the UK.5
In 2012, the total number of UK trading vessels
directly owned, parent-owned, or managed by
UK companies was 15046 – just under 2% of
the world trade fleet.7 There were a total of 675
UK-owned trading vessels of 100 gross tons
and over, representing an 8% decline in the
total UK-owned fleet, compared to 2011. About
57% of vessels are container and ro-ro (‘roll
on-roll off’) passenger and cargo ships; 21% are
liquid (oil, chemical, gas) tankers; 14% are dry
bulk carriers; and 8% are passenger or cruise
ships.8
1 Saunders J et al. (2010) Valuing the Marine Estate and UK Seas:
Initial Static Baseline Assessment. The Crown Estate.
5http://www.maritimeuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Maritime-UK-tonnage-tax.pdf
2 Oxford Economics (2013) The economic impact of the UK Maritime
Services Sector: Summary
6https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fle01-tradingfleets-and-ships
3http://www.ukchamberofshipping.com/media/filer_public/30/3d/303d276f-8e4d-4807-9a17-6b14e5effbf4/chart_shipping_
and_the_economy_ppt.pdf
7http://www.emsa.europa.eu/news-a-press-centre/download/1933/1554/23.html
4http://www.ukchamberofshipping.com/media/filer_public/39/
e8/39e8dab9-9f9a-412d-990a-5814d47ffc2e/economic_impact_of_
uk_shipping_sector_-_feb_2013_including_regional.pdf
1
It is estimated that the shipping industry made a
£5.6 billion value-added contribution to UK GDP
in 2012.4
8https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fle01-tradingfleets-and-ships
MSEP Facts & Figures Series 2: The UK shipping industry
Figure 1. Number of UK-owned trading vessels vs. UK fleet tonnage capacity (2002-2012)
200
180
Percentage increase in
the number of vessels
(500 gross tons and over)
160
140
120
100
Percentage increase in
total capacity (in thousand
deadweight tonnes) of UK
fleet
80
60
40
20
Source: DfT analysis of IHS
Global data
In 2012, the vast majority of the UK-owned
trading fleet (about 85%) were vessels of 500
gross tons and over, making up a total capacity
(for all trading vessels) of 21 615 thousand
deadweight tonnes.9 Although the size of the
fleet (vessels of 500 gross tons and over) has
only increased by 22% in ten years, the fleet’s
total capacity has increased by 76.5%.10 Figure 1
shows the percentage increase in the number of
UK-owned trading vessels (500 gross tons and
over) versus the percentage increase in total UK
fleet capacity (in thousand deadweight tonnes)
between 2002 and 2012.11
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20
11
20
10
20
09
20
08
20
07
20
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Direct jobs supported by the industry in 2011
were around 0.5% of total employment in the
UK. Of these, approximately 28% are UK officers
or ratings, 5% are based onshore, and the
remainder are composed of foreign nationals
working as either officers or ratings on UKregistered vessels. Excluding foreign seafarers,
the shipping industry employs over 48 200
UK nationals. The employment of UK nationals
within the industry has increased by 17.8%
since 2009, creating an additional 7300 jobs in
the process.13
Nearly 30% of UK nationals employed by
the shipping industry in 2011 were based in
Scotland. The second largest region, the North
West of England, accounted for just 12% of
employment. There were three other regions that
each accounted for around 5000 UK nationals
employed by the shipping industry; the North
East, the South West, and the South East of
England.14
In 2011, the overall contribution (including
the direct, indirect, and induced impacts) of
the UK shipping industry is estimated to have
been £12.5 billion to UK GDP or 0.8% of the UK
economy, supporting 145 500 direct jobs and
about twice as many if indirect jobs are included.
It is estimated that the direct contribution by
the shipping industry to the UK economy was
of £5.6 billion GVA. Although this represented a
modest contraction compared to 2009 figures,
the economic contribution of the shipping
industry in the last decade has experienced an
annual growth of 10.6% in real terms.12
In terms of its relative contribution to regional
GDP, the shipping industry is most important
to the Scottish economy, accounting for
approximately 1% of regional GDP.15
9https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fle02-ukowned-vessels
13 Oxford Economics (2013) The economic impact of the UK Maritime
Services Sector: Shipping
10https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fle01-tradingfleets-and-ships
14 Oxford Economics (2013) The economic impact of the UK Maritime
Services Sector: Shipping
11 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fle01-tradingfleets-and-ships
15 Oxford Economics (2013) The economic impact of the UK Maritime
Services Sector: Shipping
12 Oxford Economics (2013) The economic impact of the UK Maritime
Services Sector: Shipping.
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MSEP Facts & Figures Series 2: The UK shipping industry
Shipping activity can have an impact on the
environment in a number of ways, including
pollution by oil and hazardous or toxic
substances from incidental, operational,
and illegal discharges; air pollution through
emissions and particulate matter from engine
exhaust gases and cargo tanks, which may
be carried over long distances; discharge
of operational wastes from ships, including
discharge of raw sewage and litter; the
introduction of non-indigenous organisms;
pollution and physical impact through loss
of ships and cargo; and physical and other
impacts including noise and collision with
marine mammals.16
A recent spill of polyisobutene (PIB) – a sticky
chemical used as a lubricant in ship’s engines
– has highlighted another negative impact
the industry can have on the environment.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
(RSPB) estimated that around 4000 seabirds
were affected by the spill that took place in
early 2013, washing up the birds off the south
coast of England.17 The international response
to this incident came quickly. In late 2013,
the International Maritime Organization (IMO)
approved a reclassification of PIBs from 2014,
which means that ships will only be able to
wash their tanks and dispose of all PIB residues
while in port. Previously, it had been legal for
discharges to be made when vessels washed
out their tanks, as long as they were farther
than 12 nautical miles from the nearest point of
land.18
International shipping is estimated to contribute
some 3% of global emissions of CO2. Although
the industry has reduced its consumption
of fossil fuels by, for example, employing
increasingly thermally efficient diesel engines
in recent decades, the current total fuel oil
consumption is in excess of 350 million tonnes
per annum.19
16http://qsr2010.ospar.org/media/assessments/p00440_Shipping_Assessment.pdf
17 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22505544
18http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-24617697
19http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/PollutionPrevention/
AirPollution/Documents/Air%20pollution/Future_ship_powering_options_report.pdf
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In the UK, aviation and shipping were not
included in the 2008 Climate Change Act – a
legal commitment to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by 80% by 2050. However, the UK
Committee for Climate Change has recently
advised the government that there is no
reason to treat shipping any differently from
other sectors. An analysis of the UK transport
greenhouse gas emissions over a 20-year period
(1990 to 2009) showed that the international
shipping component was around 6% in 2009,
compared to 20% for international aviation
and 74% for land-based vehicles.20 But, recent
research by the IMO suggests that the impact of
shipping on climate change has been seriously
underestimated and that the industry is currently
churning out greenhouse gases at nearly
twice the rate of aviation globally. This is very
significant in a context of shipping often being
seen as the environmentally friendly alternative
to other transport methods; because the industry
is growing so fast, the pollution it creates is at
least 50% higher than previously thought and
maritime emissions are also set to increase by
75% by 2020.21
Infrastructure, aggregates and shipping
1. The UK marine aggregates industry
2. The UK shipping industry
3. The UK ports industry
Series 2 was written and researched by Fernanda Balata
(Researcher at NEF) and Chris Williams (Marine SocioEconomics Project Coordinator at NEF). All the data examined
in this series come from the UK Government, The European
Wind Energy Association (EWEA), the Crown Estate, Renewable
UK, OIl & Gas UK, the Chamber of Shipping or Eurostat - unless
otherwise referenced.
These data sources can be found on the MSEP website:
http://www.mseproject.net/data-sources
20http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/PollutionPrevention/
AirPollution/Documents/Air%20pollution/Future_ship_powering_options_report.pdf
21http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shipping-pollution-far-more-damaging-than-flying-396455.html
Published by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), June 2014.
www.neweconomics.org Tel: 020 7820 6300 Registered charity number 1055254.