The remarkable rise of a number of African flags providing services to the so-called dark fleet shows no sign of slowing.
Gabon has become a top 30 shipping register this year, according to Clarksons Research, its fleet growing by 122% in 2024 to 6.9m gt, of which 6.3m are tankers. A month prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine 28 months ago, the African nation had just 0.8m gt on its books.
The Comoro Islands flag has also more than doubled in size this year, up 126% to 2.8m gt.
However, in terms of growth, no shipping register in the world can beat Guinea-Bissau, whose register has leapt 504% this year to 1.2m gt. In early 2022, Pireaus-based G-B International was appointed to run the open registry of Guinea-Bissau. The registry, which exhibited at Posidonia in Athens earlier this month, also has an office in Lebanon.
Another African nation making shipping headlines this year has been Eswatini, the landlocked southern African kingdom formerly known as Swaziland. The Eswatini Maritime Affairs and International Ship Registry was formed as a private company in Singapore late last year. The International Maritime Organization has since listed a number of vessels that paid to flag with the African nation as ‘False Eswatini’. Clarksons data shows the flag currently has 23 ships totalling 0.7m gt on its books.
Sao Tome is another African flag whose fleet has more than doubled in size since Russia went to war.
