plate 331 · 2026 data

UAE-based shipowners tripled their fleet and entered the top ten

Merchant fleet by country of beneficial ownership, million deadweight tonnes, 1 January 2014 and 2026. UNCTAD.

Trade rewired
  1. 1. Mexico, not China, now sells America the most goods
  2. 2. China's ASEAN trade is now almost double its US trade
  3. 3. America's duty-free parcels grew almost tenfold in nine years
  4. 4. Mexico's factories now outproduce Britain's and France's
  5. 5. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
  6. 6. The EU now buys more US gas than Russian gas
  7. 7. Malaysia again sells more to America than to China
  8. 8. Brazil mines 93% of the world's niobium
  9. 9. More Vietnamese now work in industry than on farms
  10. 10. Indonesia set to use more palm oil than it exports
  11. 11. Factories now make more of Cambodia's economy than China's
  12. 12. China now buys more from Brazil than from Germany
  13. 13. Kazakhstan now sells Russia more than Germany does
  14. 14. China fell to third among America's suppliers in 2025
  15. 15. America overtook China as Taiwan's biggest export market
  16. 16. Mongolia's coal exports hit a record 90 million tonnes
  17. 17. Viet Nam's ports now handle more containers than Japan's
  18. 18. Liberia overtook Panama as the biggest flag by ship capacity
  19. 19. Nickel made Indonesia the world's fifth-biggest iron and steel exporter
  20. 20. Mexico again hosts more US investment than China
  21. 21. Mexico replaced China as America's top computer supplier
  22. 22. France fell from first to third among Côte d'Ivoire's suppliers
  23. 23. Wigs are nearly half of what North Korea sells China
  24. 24. Viet Nam overtook China as Morocco's top smartphone supplier
  25. 25. China became the top electric car supplier in 21 countries
  26. 26. Indonesia became America's biggest solar panel supplier
  27. 27. 21 countries now buy more from China than from Russia
  28. 28. China's share of world cotton imports halved, to a fifth
  29. 29. Morocco's container ports grew fastest of the world's top 40
  30. 30. China now supplies almost two-thirds of lithium-ion battery imports
  31. 31. 13 countries made India their biggest medicine supplier
  32. 32. China passed Denmark as top supplier of imported wind turbines
  33. 33. Thailand lost the top rice supplier spot in 18 countries
  34. 34. UAE-based shipowners tripled their fleet and entered the top ten
19.8 → 59.6 Mt

Shipping tonnage controlled by owners based in the UAE, January 2014 to January 2026: three times as much.

17th → 10th

The UAE passed the US, Norway, Denmark, Bermuda and Turkey; Switzerland also climbed, from 21st to 11th.

1.2% → 2.5%

The UAE's share of world tonnage; 2022–24 brought 63% of the rise, and the fleet has held near 60 Mt since 2025.

Source: UNCTAD, UNCTADstat: merchant fleet by country of beneficial ownership, 2026
the numbers & method
UAE-based shipowners tripled their fleet and entered the top ten. Source: UNCTAD, UNCTADstat: merchant fleet by country of beneficial ownership, 2026.
2014 (Mt)2026 (Mt)
United Kingdom46.761.1
United Arab Emirates19.859.6
Switzerland17.958.2
Norway43.349.8
Turkey28.947.7
United States55.645.6
Denmark39.345.1
Bermuda37.638.2

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

UNCTAD (UN Trade and Development), UNCTADstat US.FleetBeneficialOwners (version 10002, last updated 2026-05-27), deadweight tonnes of commercial ships by the country where the company with the commercial responsibility for the ship is located, as at 1 January each year; read from the UNCTADstat API via the progrss vault (§4.11, unctadstat 14 matches/0 mismatches). UNCTAD compiles it from Clarksons Research ship data. Ranks are among the 175 countries and territories in the table (progrss calculation; world total = sum of countries: 1,672 million dwt in 2014, 2,427 million in 2026). UAE: 19.8 million dwt in 2014 (17th, 1.19%), 20.8 in 2020 (21st), 28.9 in 2022 (19th), 54.1 in 2024 (10th), 59.8 in 2025 (9th), 59.6 in 2026 (10th, 2.46%). Countries the UAE passed, 2014 → 2026 rank: United States 8th → 14th, Norway 11th → 12th, Denmark 12th → 15th, Bermuda 13th → 16th, Turkey 14th → 13th (also Italy and India). Switzerland rose faster in tonnage, 17.9 → 58.2 million dwt (21st → 11th). Ranks since the jump: 10th in 2024, 9th in 2025, 10th in 2026, only 1.4 million dwt ahead of Switzerland (59.6 vs 58.2). Location of the controlling company, not its owners' nationality; the table cannot show whether UAE-based firms are foreign-controlled. Beneficial ownership is where the controlling company sits, not the flag a ship flies (see plate 211 for flags). The table does not say why tonnage moved; no cause is claimed. Takeaway 3's last clause is Interpretation.

license this plate

what connects to this

003 new routes Central banks now hold more gold than Treasuries or euros 013 new routes Six of the world's ten busiest ports are in China 309 going electric Apurímac went from no copper to a seventh of Peru's