Comments on Class Statistics
Input
The Central Union of Marine Insurers in Norway (CEFOR) have collected figures
from IACS classification societies for the benefit of the IUMI Conference in Genoa in
September 2001.
The societies were asked to supply the following data:
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number of vessels
total gross tonnage (GT)
average gross tonnage
average age
for each of the following:
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by vessel type
by 10 biggest flags
by the following size groups (all vessels; in addition for Tank and Bulk):
- 0 – 5,000 GT
- 5,001 – 25,000 GT
- 25,001 – 50,000 GT
- 50,001 – 100,000 GT
- > 100,000 GT
The data was requested, if possible, as per the end of 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
in order to present a historical development of the class societies’ portfolios.
The response was good and on the whole all societies did supply CEFOR with the
requested data, some with others without historical figures. Some class societies did
though group the data differently and some supplied additional data. Below are some
remarks, which should be kept in mind when interpreting the data.
Statistics Output
For each of the individual class societies:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Bureau Veritas (BV), Chinese Classification
Society (CCS), Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Germanischer Lloyd (GL), Korean
Register (KR), Lloyd’s Register (LR), Class NK (NK), RINA, Russian Register (RR)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------a file was prepared containing spreadsheets showing
 Graphs – Vessel Type
 Graphs – 10 biggest Flags
 Graphs – Size Group
 The class society’s supplied (historical) figures
In addition an “All classes”-file was prepared comparing class societies on the basis
of the most recent figures. This contains also graphs per vessel type, some selected
flags, per size group as well as the most recent figures.
Remarks
! When interpreting the graphs or figures please keep in mind the following !

“10 biggest flags” was by some class societies related to the number of
vessels, by some to the total gross tonnage. This will give a different picture
and thus should be kept in mind when comparing class societies. In addition
historical variations occur, such that not necessarily the 10 biggest flags per
today were among the 10 biggest in historical years. The graphs include all
flags appearing in the top ten-list in at least one of the years, which results in
missing columns for single flags in some of the years. This does however not
mean that the class society did not have any vessels going under that flag in
that year, but only that this flag was not among the top 10 in that year and the
information therefore was not available.

In the “all classes”-file a selection of major flags were chosen to show how
these are represented among the class societies. Also, here a missing column
for a class society does not mean that the class society does not have vessels
under that flag, but only that the flag was not among the top ten in 2000/2001
and that the information was not available.

In individual cases, figures were given in DWT instead of GT. Keep this in
mind when comparing with other class societies.
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In individual cases, reported size groups were deviating from the requested
groups and these do not appear in the overall comparing graphs.
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CEFOR has no knowledge as to how exactly the individual class societies
define e.g. “Bulk”, “Tank”, i.e. whether vessels are grouped into types
according to exactly the same principle (e.g. is an OBO carrier a tanker or a
bulker?). It should therefore be kept in mind when comparing class societies
that this might possibly be handled differently. In addition CEFOR has no
knowledge of whether “other vessels” includes only vessels with types or flags
other than the ones specifically defined, or whether it also includes vessels of
unknown type or flag, which would belong to one of the specified groups, if
identifiable. Further CEFOR does have no information whatsoever in how far
the data was handled consistently over time in the individual class society’s
records.