The Competitiveness of the UK Shipping Industry

Key Pillars of UK Performance

The country’s strongest performance lies in its regulatory environment and governance, where it ranks 4th globally. This reflects the UK’s robust legal and institutional frameworks, transparent regulation, and low barriers to market entry—factors that continue to underpin London’s role as a global hub for maritime law, arbitration, and insurance.

Fleet and capital indicators also show the UK in a strong position, ranking 5th overall. The UK boasts deep capital markets (joint 1st), a significant presence of ship management companies (3rd), and a competitive fleet size and value (7th in both owned deadweight tonnage and fleet value). However, the report notes that the UK’s fleet is older than many of its peers, ranking 13th in fleet age.

In terms of workforce, the UK ranks 9th, supported by a relatively strong supply of seafarers. Yet, it falls behind in human capital development, ranking 20th, and faces challenges in immigration policy that limit labour flexibility—particularly in offshore energy and domestic ferry services.

The UK ranks 8th overall in assessments of trade competitiveness, presenting a mixed picture—performing well in sea transport services exports and liner shipping connectivity, but lagging in logistics performance and transport cost efficiency. The report highlights the need for infrastructure investment and planning reform to improve port connectivity and reduce friction at borders.

Overall UK Competitiveness Ranking: 5th out of 44 countries

Thematic deep dives:

The report also explores strategic themes affecting UK competitiveness, including tonnage tax, decarbonisation, labour market dynamics, and offshore energy.

• It finds that while the UK’s tonnage tax regime is broadly competitive, uptake remains limited due to training obligations and berth availability.
• Analysis shows also that whilst efforts to decarbonise are ambitious, they are hampered by infrastructure gaps and regulatory complexity.
• The UK’s leadership in offshore wind is a major asset, but vessel shortages and underdeveloped port infrastructure risk undermining its potential.

The report concludes with a call to action for government and industry to consolidate the UK’s leadership in areas of comparative advantage—such as regulation, legal services, and decarbonisation—while addressing infrastructure bottlenecks, modernising workforce policy, and unlocking green and transition finance to support the sector’s long-term growth.

Global Leaders by Pillar: 

Overall Top 5 Countries:

• 1st – Singapore
• 2nd – Japan
• 3rd – China
• 4th – Germany
• 5th – United Kingdom