Statistics on the development of Moldova’s merchant fleet.

Republic of Moldova officially became a full member of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), on December 12, 2001. Currently, the organization’s has 163 member states and two countries have associate member status. The above mentioned, suggests that Moldova should have, if not military then, at least, the merchant fleet. For some uninitiated people the term “Moldovan fleet” may sound funny. But, contrary to this, the situation is a little different. According to annual reports of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – Review of Maritime Transport, which, according to some sources, contains data from «Lloyd’s Register», which includes vessels of over 100 tones, Republic of Moldova occupies a leading positions in the region on compartment of dynamic growth of the volume of cargo which sail under the flag of our country.

Considering the fact that until 2007, in Review of Maritime Transport had not been reflected data relating to the Republic of Moldova, it is possible to make an analyze only from 2007 till 2010, that is, till the last publication of the Review.

So, if in 2007, the total gross tonnage of merchant vessels, that sail under the flag of Moldova amounted to only 16 thousand tons, in 2010 amounted to 351 000 tons.

Moldova’s merchant fleet development 2007 – 2010 (in thousands of tons)

	Total fleet	Oil tankers	Bulk Carriers	General cargo	Container ships	Other types
2007	16	0	0	16	0	0
2008	49	14	4	31	0	1
2009	179	10	38	122	4	4
2010	351	19	76	240	4	12

But, carrying out a comparative analysis of similar indicators in neighboring countries, we will be convinced that at the moment, the term “Moldovan fleet” is not a joke.

As we see from the below represented table, from the nearest neighbors, Moldova leads in dynamic growth of cargo sailing under its flag, even overtaking neighboring Rominia on the total amount of cargo.

Year	Moldova	Ukraine	Rominia	Russia
2007	16	1 136	272	8 046
2008	49	1 145	270	7 529
2009	179	1 087	262	7 527
2010	351	905	246	7 650

At the moment, Moldova has under its flag more than 400 maritime vessels.

MV Goodway under the flag of Moldova.