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Greek owners ditch home flag

The expensive and overly bureaucratic Greek flag is losing more and more business to rival registers, led by the Marshall Islands and Liberia.

Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports today that 62 ships left the Greek flag in the past 12 months, and 100 have departed in total over the past two years.

The Marshall Islands is the flag Greek owners favour most with 791 ships registered there as of the end of February, up 74 vessels year-on-year. Liberia is in second position with 774 ships, up 31 year-on-year.

Greece remains the world’s largest shipowning nation followed by Japan then China.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.

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