ECSA: Study highlights economic importance of EU shipping

A recent Oxford Economics study estimates the overall contribution of the European shipping industry to EU GDP at 147 billion euros for 2013, according to the European Community Shipowners’ Association.    According to a statement from the European Community Shipowners’ Association, a recent update of the Oxford Economics study on the economic value of the EU shipping industry estimates the overall contribution of the European shipping industry to the European Union’s GDP in 2013 was 147 billion euros (U.S. $162.75 billion).
   ESCA added the study indicates “for every €1 million the European shipping industry contributes to GDP itself, it creates another €1.6 million elsewhere in the European economy.”
   European shipping provided jobs to an estimated 2.2 million people both on board vessels and ashore in the wider maritime cluster, growing employment by 25 percent from 2004 to 2013.
   “Europe controls the world’s largest and most innovative fleet of ships,” ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven said of the study. “This very important fact is often overlooked despite the fact that it plays a key role in the economic impact of our industry on the European economy.”
   According to the study, 40 percent of the world’s gross cargo tonnage is imported to or exported from an EU country, and EU-controlled cargo fleet has grown 74 percent since 2005.
   The complete updated Oxford Economics study of the economic value of the EU shipping industry can be found here.