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Table 1-24: Number and Size of the U.S. Flag Merchant Fleet and Its Share of the World Fleet

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(Oceangoing Self-Propelled, Cargo-Carrying Vessels of 1,000 Gross Tons and Above)

  1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
World fleet 17,317 18,329 19,980 22,872 24,867 25,555 23,596 23,943 23,753 24,331 25,092 25,608 26,858 27,557 27,828 28,259 28,318 25,847 26,782 27,694 28,988 30,071 31,507 33,035 34,750 34,966 33,586 34,987 36,000 36,307 38,496 40,931 41,674
U.S. fleet 2,926 2,376 1,579 857 864 737 636 619 603 565 543 509 495 477 470 463 282 274 261 246 233 231 229 220 225 217 221 214 198 187 179 170 169
U.S. Percentage of the world fleet 16.9 13.0 7.9 3.7 3.5 2.9 2.7 2.6 2.5 2.3 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.7 1.7 1.6 1.0 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.4
Freighters, total 2,138 1,747 1,076 511 471 417 367 359 349 322 308 295 292 288 289 284 142 140 139 136 140 141 142 133 140 137 138 138 139 131 122 112 108
DWT (thousands) 21,877 18,127 11,733 7,051 6,885 7,353 7,265 7,156 7,211 7,040 6,866 6,517 6,419 6,458 6,732 6,696 4,406 4,334 4,247 4,240 4,323 4,605 4,432 4,126 4,435 4,310 4,584 4,528 4,528 4,288 4,140 3,976 3,754
General Cargo N N N 356 259 209 166 165 182 169 152 142 146 142 140 137 22 23 20 18 22 17 20 20 19 19 18 20 22 22 21 16 17
DWT (thousands) N N N 4,640 3,329 2,980 2,605 2,592 2,973 2,913 2,677 2,472 2,467 2,420 2,400 2,404 555 563 411 296 335 284 297 297 250 229 174 191 224 239 231 161 179
Container N N N 109 121 104 92 92 83 87 86 81 83 85 91 89 81 77 79 78 75 81 73 70 78 76 80 79 80 75 69 67 63
DWT (thousands) N N N 1,773 2,289 2,651 2,856 2,856 2,722 2,812 2,802 2,600 2,639 2,743 3,096 3,056 3,004 2,932 3,019 3,124 3,104 3,428 3,106 2,952 3,306 3,219 3,596 3,537 3,554 3,357 3,257 3,230 2,998
Partial containerships N N N 37 68 63 59 52 30 3 3 3 1 1 N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N
DWT (thousands) N N N 510 940 904 836 741 456 57 57 57 17 17 N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N
Ro-Ro N N N 9 23 41 50 50 54 63 67 69 62 60 58 58 39 40 40 40 43 43 49 43 43 42 40 39 37 34 32 29 28
DWT (thousands) N N N 128 327 818 968 967 1,060 1,258 1,330 1,388 1,296 1,278 1,236 1,236 847 839 817 820 884 893 1,029 877 879 862 814 799 751 692 652 585 577
Tankers, total 422 341 294 267 308 258 233 226 220 210 200 181 173 161 154 154 117 111 96 84 67 63 63 63 61 59 62 60 49 48 49 50 53
DWT (thousands) 7,815 7,561 7,739 9,711 16,152 15,534 15,641 14,993 14,180 13,048 11,945 11,028 10,378 9,696 9,289 9,373 6,854 6,385 5,379 4,558 3,655 3,655 3,984 4,001 4,028 3,966 4,104 4,016 3,326 3,340 3,386 3,504 3,768
Petroleum/chemical ships N N N N N 244 219 212 206 196 186 167 159 148 145 146 117 111 96 84 67 63 63 63 61 59 62 60 49 48 49 50 53
DWT (thousands)b N N N N N 14,574 14,681 14,033 13,279 12,143 11,040 10,123 9,473 8,857 8,737 8,845 6,854 6,385 5,379 4,558 3,655 3,655 3,984 4,001 4,028 3,966 4,104 4,016 3,326 3,340 3,386 3,504 3,768
Liquefied petroleum/natural gas ships N N N N N 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 13 9 8 N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N
DWT (thousands) N N N N N 960 960 960 901 905 905 905 905 839 552 528 N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N
ITB, total 309 227 171 60 65 37 10 10 11 12 13 13 15 14 12 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 9 9 4 2 2 2 2 2
DWT (thousands) 2,070 1,488 1,107 388 446 299 91 92 97 104 115 115 139 136 116 99 462 462 462 462 462 462 462 462 462 324 324 99 15 15 15 15 15
Dry Bulk, total 57 61 38 19 20 25 26 24 23 21 22 20 15 14 15 14 11 11 14 14 14 15 12 12 12 12 12 12 8 6 6 6 6
DWT (thousands) 805 1,107 767 544 607 1,152 1,270 1,014 991 949 1,042 925 575 321 604 579 685 685 823 823 823 875 533 533 533 533 533 533 388 260 260 260 260

KEY: DWT = deadweight tons; N = data do not exist; RO/RO = roll-on/roll-off vessels.

NOTES

Excludes non-merchant type and/or U.S. Navy-owned vessels currently in the National Defense Reserve Fleet.

Excludes ships operating exclusively on the Great Lakes and inland waterways and special types such as: channel ships, icebreakers, cable ships, and merchant ships owned by military forces.

All yearly counts are from January of that year.

MARAD has recently reverted back to regarding the merchant fleet as vessels of 1,000 gross tons and greater. They will no longer publish the fleet using “10,000 DWT and greater” as a criterion. Therefore, this report is not comparable with the previous' issues.

The vessel categories used for this report include the following types:

Tankers: Petroleum Tankers, Chemical Carriers, LNG Carriers, LNG/LPG Carriers, LPG Carriers.

Container: Fully Cellular Containerships.

Dry Bulk: Bulk Vessels, Bulk Containerships, Cement Carriers, Wood Chip Carriers, Ore/Bulk/Oil Carriers, Bulk/Oil Carriers.

Ro-Ro: Ro-Ro Vessels, Ro-Ro/Containerships, Vehicle Carriers.

General Cargo: General Cargo Carriers, Partial Containerships, Refrigerated Ships.

ITB: Integrated Tug/Barge

SOURCES

World fleet:

1994: U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, Merchant Fleets of the World (Washington, DC: Annual issues), and unpublished revisions.

1995-2009: U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, personal communication as of June 2010 and September 2011.

2010-13: U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, Maritime Statistics, Top 25 Flag of Registry, available at: http://www.marad.dot.gov/library_landing_page/data_and_statistics/Data_a... as of Feb. 24, 2015.

2014: U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, personal communication, August 16, 2016.

2015-16: U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, Fleet Statistics, available at: https://www.marad.dot.gov/resources/data-statistics/ as of Aug. 15, 2016.

All other categories:

1960-99: U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, Merchant Fleets of the World (Washington, DC: Annual issues), and unpublished revisions.

2000-16: U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, Maritime Statistics, 2000-2016 U.S. -Flag Privately-Owned Fleet Summary, available at: http://www.marad.dot.gov/library_landing_page/data_and_statistics/Data_a... as of May 11, 2016.