Mr. Veniamis noted that the vast majority of the fleet is been managed by companies based in Hellas. As a result, shipping is responsible for about 7% of the country's GDP, preserving thousands of jobs, both direct and indirect, through the cluster of companies involved in all aspects of the maritime business. In fact, according to UGS' president, for every 1 million euro which the European shipping community contributes to the EU's economy, an additional 1.6 million euros are being created in other fields of the economy.
This means that shipping should be deemed as one of the backbones of both the Hellenic and the European economy, which means that it is imperative for the EU to adopt a unified policy, which will give priority to the preservation of the maritime industry's competitiveness, especially given the acute competition from other nations. According to Mr. Veniamis, "the existence of a stable framework for shipping is a prerequisite for the safety of investments and thus, their sustainability". These issues should be highlighted on the occasion of this year's Posidonia, which coincide with the Hellenic Republic's Presidency of the EU.
In a recent note, Clarksons had noted that "for twenty years Greece, the big risk taker, has been locked in competition with Japan, that sober nation of corporates (well, that's the perception). From the mid-1990s Greek owners kept well ahead of Japan, but when the 2000s super-boom arrived Japan surged ahead to become the top shipping nation. But Greek owners who were quite restrained during the boom, made up for it in 2010 and by the start of 2014 they were back at the top of the charts, with a fleet totalling 164m GT. So the perception of the two titans turned out to be wrong. Perceived risk taker Greece held back in the boom, whilst Japan's bulk investors had a flutter, from which they now have a bloody nose".
Additionally, despite the ongoing woes of the dry bulk market and a lackluster tanker market performance over the first quarter of the years, ship owners from Hellas have increased their investments in both the newbuilding, as well as the second hand markets during the first quarter of the year. Attractive pricing together with financing availability have acted in favor of such decisions by ship owners, who are looking to place their companies at an advantageous position, in expectance of a market recovery. According to figures compiled by shipbroker Golden Destiny, Hellenic ship owners have mostly turned to second hand vessels, where their purchasing appetite was 38% higher than their ordering business. " The invested capital of Greek owners in the secondhand market was more than $3,3bn for 131 vessel purchases, when during the first three months of 2013, was region more than $1bn. In terms of number of units, their secondhand purchasing activity increased by 87%, with 26% share of the total S&P activity from 21% in the first quarter of 2013", the shipbroker noted. It added that "despite the conservative approach of Hellenic owners towards the newbuilding business, the increase of investments is higher than their secondhand vessel purchases. In terms of number of units, newbuilding orders from Greek recorded 126% increase compared with their activity in their first three months of 2013 with their invested capital of more than $3,5bn, with 12% share of the total newbuilding activity from 9% in the first quarter of 2013", it noted.
Picture: Mr Theodore Veniamis
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide