New Study Reveals World’s Leading Shipping Nations

Posted on: 2025-09-16

Updated on: 2026-08-03

The UK Chamber of Shipping has published a new report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), confirming the UK’s position as one of the world’s most competitive maritime nations.

The report introduces the Shipping Competitiveness Index, an international benchmark assessing 44 maritime countries that together represent over 80% of globally owned deadweight tonnage. The United Kingdom ranks 5th out of 44 countries in the latest Shipping Competitiveness Index, developed by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr). The report, commissioned by the UK Chamber of Shipping, benchmarks maritime performance across four key pillars:

Trade,
Fleet & capital,
Workforce, and
Regulatory environment & governance

Overall top 5 countries

Rank	Country
1st	Singapore
2nd	Japan
3rd	China
4th	Germany
5th	United Kingdom

Category rankings

Category	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Trade	Singapore	Germany	United States	China	France
Workforce	South Korea	United States	Russia	China	Denmark
Fleet & Capital	Greece	Singapore	China	Japan	United Kingdom
Regulatory Environment & Governance	Netherlands	Norway	Japan	United Kingdom	Singapore

To remind, for the 12th year in a row, Singapore was recognised as the world’s leading shipping centre, achieving an impressive score of 99.50 out of 100 in the Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index (ISCDI) Report, jointly issued by the Baltic Exchange and Xinhua News Agency.

Key pillars of UK performance
The country’s strongest performance lies in its regulatory environment and governance, where it ranks 4th globally. This reflects the UK’s robust legal and institutional frameworks, transparent regulation, and low barriers to market entry—factors that continue to underpin London’s role as a global hub for maritime law, arbitration, and insurance.

Fleet and capital india

cators also show the UK in a strong position, ranking 5th overall. The UK boasts deep capital markets (joint 1st), a significant presence of ship management companies (3rd), and a competitive fleet size and value (7th in both owned deadweight tonnage and fleet value). However, the report notes that the UK’s fleet is older than many of its peers, ranking 13th in fleet age.

In terms of workforce, the UK ranks 9th, supported by a relatively strong supply of seafarers. Yet, it falls behind in human capital development, ranking 20th, and faces challenges in immigration policy that limit labour flexibility—particularly in offshore energy and domestic ferry services.

The UK ranks 8th overall in assessments of trade competitiveness, presenting a mixed picture—performing well in sea transport services exports and liner shipping connectivity, but lagging in logistics performance and transport cost efficiency. The report highlights the need for infrastructure investment and planning reform to improve port connectivity and reduce friction at borders.

UK performance board

Category	Overall Rank	Details
Regulatory Environment & Governance	4th	Joint 1st in flag performance and regulatory transparency
Workforce	9th	9th in seafarer supply 20th in human capital development
Fleet & Capital	5th	7th in owned fleet value and deadweight tonnage Joint 1st in financial market depth 3rd in ship management company presence
Trade	8th	10th in sea transport services exports 10th in liner shipping connectivity 16th in transport and insurance costs 19th in logistics performance

Thematic deep dives:
The report also explores strategic themes affecting UK competitiveness, including tonnage tax, decarbonisation, labour market dynamics, and offshore energy.

It finds that while the UK’s tonnage tax regime is broadly competitive, uptake remains limited due to training obligations and berth availability.
Analysis shows also that whilst efforts to decarbonise are ambitious, they are hampered by infrastructure gaps and regulatory complexity.
The UK’s leadership in offshore wind is a major asset, but vessel shortages and underdeveloped port infrastructure risk undermining its potential.

This landmark report confirms what we in the industry work so hard to achieve: the UK remains one of the world’s leading maritime nations. Our leadership in regulation, high-value maritime services, and legal and insurance expertise continues to set us apart. said Rhett Hatcher, CEO of the UK Chamber of Shipping.

The report concludes with a call to action for government and industry to consolidate the UK’s leadership in areas of comparative advantage—such as regulation, legal services, and decarbonisation—while addressing infrastructure bottlenecks, modernising workforce policy, and unlocking green and transition finance to support the sector’s long-term growth.

"To consolidate the UK’s global standing and futureproof the sector amid growing competition and transition pressures, targeted reforms will be needed to address challenges such as infrastructure gaps, workforce renewal, and maritime decarbonisation." … explained Owen Good, Head of Economic Advisory at Cebr