by Basil M. Karatzas, CEO, Karatzas Marine Advisors & Co.
When one hears the words Fifth Avenue, fine shopping springs to mind. Madison Avenue is almost synonymous to advertising and Fleet Street to British journalism.
And then, there is Akti Miaouli.
The magic touch of the word never fails to amaze us: shipping companies managing thousands of merchant ships worldwide from Akti Miaouli; the sterling address of vessel managers from where remittances and paychecks for seafarers originate; the connotation of a gilded boulevard by the port where rich shipowners run their businesses; the place where family and national history is made. Akti Miaouli is Greek shipping.
There are reportedly close to one thousand Greek shipowners and vessel managers today based in Greece. Although only 1,350 merchant vessels worldwide fly the Greek flag (vs 7,900 and 5,400 vessels for the Panamanian and Japanese flags, respectively) according to the most recent annual report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Greek shipowners top the world list with ownership of 4,200 merchant vessels and a cumulative tonnage of 310 million deadweight (whereas the world’s second biggest owner, Japan, owns 3,900 merchant vessels at 224 million deadweight). Greece controls approximately 17% of the world’s merchant fleet.
