GREEK shipping companies continue to act as an important group of non-operating tonnage providers for the container shipping market, as their share of the global managed cellular fleet has risen in the past five years.

Their share of the global fleet has increased to 10 per cent, with 438 ships for a combined capacity of 1.9 million TEU, against a share of only 5.8 per cent in January 2010, when the box fleet under Greek management stood at 226 ships with a total capacity of 800,000 TEU, Alphaliner reported.

The Greek managing owners' share is even larger when considering only the non-operating owners' (NOO) market that excludes carrier-controlled ships. Their share now reaches 20.1 per cent, compared to 11.3 per cent in 2010. Although their share is still below that of the German managing owners who control 45 per cent of the NOO fleet, yet the latter group’s share has been steadily falling from 63 per cent in 2010.

Costamare and Danaos remain the two largest Greek managing owners of containerships, having consolidated their position with newbuildings and secondhand acquisitions in the last five years, along with several owners who have expanded their fleet aggressively in recent years such as Technomar and Lomar, with the backing of US and UK institutional investors.