Showing their growing dominance of the waves as they control the world’s largest fleet, 15 Greek shipowners and executives were featured on the prominent LLoyds List of the 100 most powerful personalities in global shipping, including two women.
Shipping tycoon John Angelicoussis, who is based in New York, is the highest ranked Greek, coming in at number six, up two spots from the 2017 rankings, the business newspaper Naftemporiki said.
His worth in 2015 was estimated at $2.4 billion, and a fleet of 96 ships, according to Bloomberg. Apart from having the largest Greek-owned fleet, Angelicoussis controls the largest Greek-flag fleet, with only one bulk carrier under non-Greek colors and seven tankers, which are on bareboat charters.
Most Greek shipowners, whose sector is essentially tax-free and who threatened to leave the country if they were forced to pay, fly Flags of Convenience from other countries instead of their homeland so they won’t be assessed taxes.
George Prokopiou, the world’s biggest owner of Suezmax vessels, was 12th, up three spots from 2017 with Lloyds noting he is the first Greek shipowner to order a floating storage and regasification unit.
Angeliki Frangou, Chairwoman, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Navios Maritime Holdings, was 22nd, with a total of 120 vessels managed by four listed companies she heads up. She is from the island of Chios in the northern Aegean.
Petros Pappas, the CEO of Star Bulk, was 24th, a jump of 14 places from the previous year and was followed in 25th by George Economou, of TMS and Dryships.
At 26th was GasLog’s Peter Livanos, who is in the Liquefied Natural Gas sector and a partner in the LNG project off the port of Alexandroupolis in northeast Greece.
At 43d was the President of the Greek Shipowners’ Union, Theodore Veniamis, who also jumped up 14 places on the list.
China – with Chinese company Cosco operating the port of Piraeus – is threatening to overtake Greek dominance of the seas, said Lloyds, with 12 percent of the Top 100 compared to Greece’s 14 percent and building its fleet of commercial ships fast.
“A year ago, we struggled to imagine a world where Chinese companies did not dominate the Top 100 list. With strong state backing and growing dominance in finance, shipbuilding and shipowning, China Inc looked set to lead for many years to come,” said Lloyds.