FACTS ABOUT THE SHIPPING INDUSTRY
Added on: 18th Feb 2015
NO SERVICE
Around two-thirds of ship crews in the world have no means of
communication while they are on the open sea. Only about
1 in 10 will have freely available Internet.
PIRATES
In 2010, Somali pirates were holding 544 seafarers hostage. Every year,
more than 2,000 sailors die at sea, and an incredible two ships are
lost every day. In 2012, the attack rates on seafarers was higher than
the number of violent crimes in South Africa, the highest-crime
nation on Earth.
A LONG JOURNEY
A container ship travels the equivalent of three-quarters of the way to
the moon and back in one year during its regular travel across the oceans.
EXPENSIVE SHIPS
The largest ships can cost over 200 million dollars to build.
SEAFARER DEMOGRAPHICS
Females constitute only about 2% of seafarers. People from the
Philippines make up more than a third of all crews worldwide,
with nearly a quarter million at sea.
A BOATLOAD OF BANANAS
The largest ships can store 745 million bananas in nearly 15,000
containers. That’s about one for every person in Europe and
North America.
AN ANCIENT INDUSTRY
Shipping is one of the oldest industries in the world. Today, however,
it plays as important a role as ever.
LOTS OF BOATS
There are approximately 55,000 merchant ships carrying
cargo around the world.
LOTS OF SEAFARERS
Around 1.5 million seafarers are employed by the
global shipping industry.
Comment on this