COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2016
31
10%, than that of the fleet capacity, it can be concluded that the majority of the OIC’s
merchandise trade is being carried by foreign shipping companies. Although such a situation is
a common trend in today’s globalized shipping industry, this often leads to high maritime
transport costs and low shipping connectivity particularly for the OIC countries with smaller
economies located in remote locations (COMCEC, 2015).
Figure 14 compares the share of OIC fleet in the global fleet by ship’s type in 1985 and 2016,
respectively. The figure reveals that the OIC’s share of general cargo ships is currently 12.5% of
the world’s general cargo fleet, while the OIC share in the global bulk and tanker fleet is only
1.7% and 4.4%, respectively. This is surprising considering the trade in many OIC countries are
mainly dominated by bulk and fuel commodities (COMCEC, 2015).
Figure 14: OIC and global commercial fleet by type of ship (1985 and 2016)
Source: Compiled by the author from UNCTAD Statistical Database
Between OIC countries, there is a great disparity in ship ownership and operation. In 2016, OIC-
MENA countries dominated fleet ownership with holding 67% of the total OIC fleet. Turkey had
the largest commercial OIC fleet with a total tonnage of 28 million dwt. Other countries with
large fleets include Iran (17.8 million dwt), Indonesia (17.3 million dwt), Malaysia (16.8 million
dwt), and the UAE (15.5 million dwt). At the other end of the scale, some OIC countries have no
commercial fleet (i.e. Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad, Comoros, Guinea
Bissau, Mali, Niger, Tajikistan, Togo, Kyrgyz Republic, and Uzbekistan); while others (i.e. Gambia,
Gabon, Senegal, Suriname, Djibouti, Guinea, and Sierra Leone) have negligible tonnage despite
the importance of their maritime trade related sectors.
-
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
1,400,000
1,600,000
1,800,000
Total fleet Oil tankers Bulk carriers General cargo Container
ships
Other types of
ships
World 1985 World 2016 OIC 1985 OIC 2016