exclusively (more than 95 per cent of the total) by owners from the country; these could be called
purely national flags. In between, 16 of the top 35 flags are used by both national and foreign owners.
The flag of the Philippines, for example, is used three times more by foreigners than Philippine nationals.
For Singapore, the proportion of foreign to national
ownership is about 2:1, and for the United Kingdom
it is about 50:50 (not including here the flag of the Isle of Man).
In January 2013, a new historical record share of 73 per cent of the world fleet was “flagged out”,
that is, the nationality of the vessel’s owner was different
from the flag under which the vessel was registered
(figure 2.7). In other words, for almost three out of every four dwt,
shipowners chose a flag different from their own nationality.
The remaining 27 per cent are kept under the national flag because either the owner considered the national flag competitive in terms of costs and services provided, or he may not have had a choice,
as is often the case for government cargo and cabotage traffic.