Greek ship-owners: They prosper by removing the Greek flag

In July 2014 recorded 4,707 Greek-owned ships, of which, only 1870 (over 100 gross register tonnage) are under Greek flag. In fact compared to a year ago, that number is reduced, since the July 2013, 1913 ships were under the Greek flag.

It is worth noting that the in 1870 ships under Greek flag, are including 611 passenger ships, which means -as notes the newspaper "Ethnos" - that the great power of Greek ship-owners, (hence the immense profits), come from ships under foreign flag.

Interesting, however, are the data on the tonnage of ships. The total number of Greek-owned ships, either reduced or remains stagnant in the last five years, but the capacity is increasing: from 242.8 million Deadweight tonnage (DWT) in 2010, the capacity of the Greek-owned ships increased by 25% this year and reached to 303.57 million DWT until mid 2014. The result is that the average capacity of the Greek-owned ship from 52.100 tonnes in 2010, to have risen to 64,500 tonnes this year, with an upward trend.

It is characteristic that from the beginning of the year so far, Greek ship-owners have bought 134 ships, which increased the capacity of the Greek-owned ships for further 22 million tonnes.

In short, barely 40% of the Greek-owned ships over 100 gross, carrying the Greek flag, with the majority of large capacity ships to be under foreign flags. Seen in this light, the contribution of Greek ship-owners in the national economy becomes largely questionable, when, in fact based on it, they demand provocative tax exemptions. The government, perhaps, ought to consider that the famous 'threat' of the Vanishing on ships from the national register whenever mumbles to increase the taxation on Greek ship-owners, is already a reality.