TEHRAN - The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in its latest report on the state of the world’s commercial fleets, has ranked Iran 25th among the countries with the largest shipping fleets, higher than the United States, Germany and France.

Based on the mentioned report, having 924 commercial vessels, the Islamic Republic stands at 25th place among 186 countries, IRIB reported.

According to the CIA, last year (2022), Iran had 32 bulk carriers, 31 container ships, 393 general cargo ships, 83 oil tankers, and 403 ships of other types.

Brazil, Portugal, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Australia, Bangladesh, Spain, and Switzerland are among the countries that have smaller fleets compared to Iran, based on the mentioned report.

The total number of active commercial ships in West Asia analyzed in this report in 2022 amounted to 4,398 ships, more than a fifth of which belonged to Iran.

Back in January, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) ranked Iran as the owner of the world’s 22nd-biggest maritime fleet in terms of capacity.

In a report dubbed “Navigating Stormy Waters”, the UNCTAD said the capacity of Iran’s maritime fleet increased by one percent or 190,000 tons in 2022.

In 2021, the capacity of the Iranian shipping fleet was estimated to be 19.251 million tons.

The UNCTAD data indicated that the Iranian shipping fleet accounts for 0.89 percent of the world’s total shipping capacity.

UNCTAD put the total number of the world’s commercial ships, including tankers, container ships, and bulk carriers at the end of 2022 at 55,037. The total capacity of the mentioned ships was estimated at 2,180,058,307 tons in 2022, which increased by two percent over the previous year.

EF/MA