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Market Report 2026

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Hong Kong’s Maritime Momentum

Building Businesses that Enable Global Trade Developing talent, managing vessels and investing in the future of global maritime trade.

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CONTENTS “Hong Kong is the piece Shanghai structurally cannot replicate”

INSIDE THE ENTREPÔT

Editor’s Comment

Introduction

11 Government 15 Shipowners

—Gautam Chellaram, KC Maritime

“Shipping has to compete for family capital rather than assume it will inherit it” — Vikrant Gusain, Dockendale Group

“Hong Kong will not out-compete its neighbours on box volume, and it doesn’t need to”

21 Port

— Bjorn Hojgaard, Anglo-Eastern

25 Bunkering 29 Greater Bay Area 33 Registry 37 Finance 41 Shipmanagement 48 Opinion

“Technology is not usually the limiting factor. Trust and adoption are” — Angad Banga, The Caravel Group

“No lead is unassailable in a market that is still being formed” — Richard Hext, Hong Kong Shipowners Association

“Hong Kong has its unique strengths which none of the other GBA cities have” — Rosita Lau, Ince

29 For all the latest breaking shipping news from Hong Kong

“Knowledge, relationships and operational experience are difficult to relocate” — Ioannis Stefanou, Wallem Group

“Mid-career professionals are mobile and have attractive opportunities in many other regional hubs” — Deborah Yu, London P&I

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

Hong Kong www.splash247.com

Market Report 2026

The site for incisive, exclusive maritime news and views

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Sam Chambers sam@asiashippingmedia.com CORRESPONDENTS Adis Adjin adis@splashmaritimegroup.com Bojan Lepic bojan@splashmaritimegroup.com All editorial material should be sent to sam@splashmaritimegroup.com COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Grant Rowles grant@splashmaritimegroup.com GENERAL MANAGER Victor Halder victor@splashmaritimegroup.com Advertising agents are also based in Tokyo, Seoul and Oslo – to contact a local agent please email grant@ splashmaritimegroup.com for details. MEDIA KITS ARE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD AT WWW.SPLASH247.COM/ADVERTISING All commercial material should be sent to grant@splashmaritimegroup.com or mailed to Splash Maritime Group Pte Ltd 36 Robinson Road #20-01, City House Singapore 068877 DESIGN Belinda Printed in Hong Kong Copyright © Splash Maritime Group Pte Ltd, 2026. Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this review is correct, the publishers accept no liability for any inaccuracies or omissions that may occur. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. For reprints of specific articles

Shout a little louder

f you want to argue that Hong Kong is a maritime centre in decline, there are plenty of statistics to support your case. Container volumes have almost halved since their peak, the ship register has taken a battering, and Singapore and mainland China have been steadily eating into businesses Hong Kong once took for granted. But spend some time talking to the people who actually make their living in Hong Kong shipping, as we have done putting together this magazine, and a rather different picture emerges. Some of the world’s largest shipmanagers are headquartered here. Shipping families are renewing fleets and diversifying. There is genuine momentum in green bunkering, finance, insurance and maritime technology. The government, often criticised for not paying shipping enough attention, has rolled out an impressive number of initiatives this year. There is energy, ambition and, importantly, plenty of people putting real money behind their convictions. The problem, I would argue, is that Hong Kong has become rather poor at telling its own maritime story. Ask an international shipping executive about the city and chances are the conversation quickly turns to falling container volumes, geopolitics or companies relocating to Singapore. These are legitimate concerns, and we explore them throughout this report. But they are far from the whole picture. Hong Kong needs to become much better at explaining what makes it different. Its unique combination of access to China, international business practices, legal expertise, maritime talent and entrepreneurial shipowners remains

remarkably compelling. That does not require another expensive branding exercise or a forest of government committees. It requires clearer messaging, more coordinated promotion and, above all, tangible examples of businesses succeeding here. It also requires a little more confidence. Hong Kong’s maritime community has traditionally preferred getting on with business to making a fuss about itself. Admirable, perhaps, but not always helpful when competing against cities that market themselves relentlessly. The interviews in this magazine reveal an industry with far more going for it than outsiders might imagine. Hong Kong does not need to reinvent its maritime identity. It needs to remind the world why it matters.

Sam Chambers Editor Splash

The city needs to remind the world why it matters

contact grant@splashmaritimegroup.com.

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INTRODUCTION

A maritime capital or just a maritime address? Hong Kong still ranks among the world’s great shipping centres. But as cargo, capital and corporate decisions become ever more mobile, the city faces a more searching test than a place in the league tables: how much international maritime business is actually run from Hong Kong?

ship can be ordered at a mainland Chinese yard, owned through a leasing company in Hong Kong, insured in London, crewed through a management operation in Asia and chartered from Singapore. Its cargo need never pass through Hong Kong’s harbour. Even its Hong Kong financing vehicle may have to seek credit approval elsewhere. The geography of shipping has always been complicated. What has changed is the urgency with which Hong Kong must ask where the real business takes place. Is the city still a maritime capital in its own right, chosen by international owners, traders and financiers because of what it offers? Or is it becoming a highly sophisticated services counter for the vast industrial and commercial machine next door? On paper, the answer looks reassuring. Hong Kong remains fourth in the 2026 Xinhua-Baltic international maritime centre rankings, behind Singapore, Shanghai and London. Three of the world’s leading shipmanagement

companies are headquartered here, major P&I clubs operate here, and the city retains a formidable concentration of lawyers, financiers and technical expertise. Look towards the waterfront, however, and a different picture emerges. The container port handled 12.99m teu in 2025, scarcely half its 2008 peak. The register has shed substantial tonnage amid geopolitical upheaval, falling to 109m gt by June this year. Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou have grown into maritime giants whose physical advantages Hong Kong cannot realistically overturn. These are not contradictory stories. Together they define the central question running through this special report: whether Hong Kong can convert its inherited maritime strengths into a sustainable business model for 2030, even as its traditional measures of importance become less flattering. Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong

Hong Kong is the piece Shanghai structurally cannot replicate

Kong Shipowners Association, resists the suggestion that the city is being reduced to an adjunct of the mainland. “An ‘annex’ does not host three of the world’s top 10 shipmanagers, 11 of the 12 International Group P&I associations, eight of the top ten shipfinance bookrunners,” he says, pointing also to the city’s legal institutions and international industry organisations. This inventory represents decades of investment and commercial trust. Yet it does not settle the more difficult question of what those institutions actually do here, or whether their next expansion will take place somewhere else.

Where the decisions are made Hong Kong has spent much of this decade making itself more attractive on tax. Qualifying ship lessors can enjoy a zero profits-tax rate; eligible ship leasing managers, shipmanagers, agents and brokers benefit from half-rate treatment, as do certain marine insurers. The administration has also sought to broaden the proposition to physical commodity

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INTRODUCTION

Singapore continues to offer broader tax incentives and a larger concentration of commodity traders

traders, recognising that traders create demand for chartering, insurance, finance and legal services The first results are tangible, but open to interpretation. Government figures show the number of ship leasing enterprises under the relevant preferential regime rising from 11 in 2020/21 to 46 in 2022/23. That is evidence that structures and businesses have responded. It says much less about the location of credit committees, the people selecting vessels or the teams negotiating charters. “Tax is necessary but not sufficient,” Hext says. Companies, he argues, follow customers, skills, capital and regulatory certainty. He wants the next phase judged by “regional headquarters, underwriting authority, credit decisions, trading desks and skilled jobs, and not by company registrations alone”. Gautam Chellaram, chairman of KC Maritime, is more sceptical about what tax reform has delivered. He sees genuine growth in leasing and mainland-linked finance, but says: “I do not yet see clear evidence that the measures have resulted in substantial headquarters relocation involving decision-makers, fund managers, and independent shipowners physically basing themselves in Hong Kong.” It would be equally wrong to dismiss the developments as bookkeeping. Hong Kong is a place where ships are managed, risks assessed and capital arranged, not merely where documents are signed. Dockendale Group is among the companies expanding management operations locally. Its chief executive, Vikrant Gusain, says Hong Kong’s ease of doing business is an important factor in the decision, alongside access to Asian markets and international talent. The competitive comparison nevertheless remains Singapore. “Singapore continues to offer broader tax incentives and a larger concentration of commodity traders,” says Jim James, senior consultant at Hill Dickinson. The latter point may be more important than the former. Traders and charterers

bring transactions, and transactions bring the brokers, lenders, insurers and lawyers who serve them. A critical mass of principals is extraordinarily difficult to manufacture through concessions alone. Hong Kong has distinct advantages of its own. Its banking network connects Chinese and international capital; its offshore renminbi role creates opportunities for trade and leasing; and its links with a vast manufacturing and shipbuilding hinterland provide access that a competing maritime centre cannot reproduce. But geographical proximity is not the same thing as commercial gravity. The city must persuade companies to put people with mandates and budgets here, not just a local subsidiary. June’s tax amendment bill, including a proposed half-rate concession for qualifying physical commodity trading, gives the policy another push. September’s first five-year plan adds a ‘Finance + Maritime’ agenda built around ship finance, insurance, trade finance and related services. Neither initiative can be called successful solely because it exists. Their test will be new trading desks, lending decisions and customers with genuine freedom to transact elsewhere.

The mainland advantage — and the danger Where does this leave the argument that Hong Kong is becoming Shanghai’s professional-services annex? Chellaram offers the report’s most uncomfortable formulation: as a cargo port, the city is being functionally subordinated to mainland competitors, but as a financial, legal and arbitration centre it retains qualities not available in the same combination across the border. “On the professional-services side, Hong Kong is the piece Shanghai structurally cannot replicate,” he says. The separate customs territory, common-law system, freely convertible currency and established international business practices all give the city a distinctive purpose. The opportunity is to

sell those qualities to the world, not simply to companies moving through China. Damien Laracy, partner and head of Hill Dickinson’s Hong Kong office, describes a transition “from a cargodriven port hub to a specialised centre for maritime services”. Rather than an annex, he sees “the region’s high-value maritime services platform, complementing the manufacturing, cargo, and port capacity of neighbouring cities”. The distinction is subtle but critical. A law firm advising a mainland shipowner on a vessel financing can be doing genuine international business from Hong Kong. So can an insurer handling a casualty thousands of miles away or a manager overseeing a fleet trading between Brazil and India. But the city’s position becomes more vulnerable if its principal attraction is merely that it makes mainland transactions easier. The international test is whether owners and counterparties with no direct mainland connection still choose Hong Kong. The machinery of a genuine maritime centre is already here. English-language maritime contracts, established commonlaw precedents, internationally recognised arbitration and access to mainland enforcement arrangements give it a credible offering. Rosita Lau, a partner at Ince, is among those urging the city to promote its legal and dispute-resolution capabilities far more systematically. The fact that Hong Kong can be chosen in a contract is not proof that it will be. There are also more prosaic measures of legal competitiveness. Martyn Huckerby, head of competition law and regulatory at Hill Dickinson, points to the extension of the block exemption for liner vessel-sharing agreements to 2031. The renewal, he says, preserves “legal certainty for operational cooperation between liner shipping companies”. It is a narrow regulatory decision, but one of the many predictable rules on which internationally mobile businesses build long-term operations. Insurance offers another illustration of integration without inevitable subordination. London P&I has served shipowners from Hong Kong for decades and opened an office in Shanghai in 2025. Deborah Yu, its regional director for Asia, says the two offices work

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PRACTICAL PATHWAYS TO 2035

2026 SUSTAINABILITY OUTLOOK Download now at www.eagle.org/outlook2026

INTRODUCTION

together with the club’s operations in London and Athens. The point is not to force every Asian insurance decision into Hong Kong, but to ensure the city continues to handle work that could plausibly be located elsewhere.

International outlook An international city must keep choosing to be international. That means foreign owners can operate comfortably, specialist staff can build careers and global counterparties can trust their contracts, information and capital to an environment they understand. This issue explores what that requirement means in practice. Hong Kong’s shipmanagement concentration provides a genuine strategic asset: it would take years to reproduce the crewing, technical and training networks that leading managers have built here. The challenge is keeping enough experienced people to make decisions locally as digitalisation, alternative fuels and increasingly complex compliance change the skill set. The same logic applies to finance and insurance. An internationally recognised logo on a Hong Kong office does not tell us whether it can approve a ship loan or underwrite a specialist risk. A registry’s gross tonnage does not establish where the family that owns the ship runs its business. A port’s box count says little about the value of transactions governed by local law, but the loss of container activity cannot be waved away simply by relabelling the city a services centre. Technology adds a further test. Hong Kong’s Port Community System is meant to help connect cargo movements, documentation and financing across the supply chain. But common platforms are only as useful as the trust and security behind them. Paul Haswell, technology partner at Hill Dickinson, notes that digitisation will bring “increased emphasis on data security and the monitoring of systems”. A financial and logistics crossroads cannot afford to treat cyber resilience as an optional extra.

Intangible trust The city’s new maritime ambitions,

A gateway is somewhere business passes through.

A maritime capital is somewhere business chooses to stay particularly green bunkering and transition finance, depend on the same mixture of hard infrastructure and intangible trust. There is little value in promoting alternative fuels unless ships can take them safely, on schedule and at competitive prices. There is little point marketing green ship finance unless lenders and owners are prepared to commit capital against realistic assumptions about technology, fuel availability and earnings. Government has clearly recognised the need to change. Its first five-year plan shifts the emphasis from volume to value, promising stronger maritime services, a greener and smarter port, closer links with the Greater Bay Area and a more developed marine finance ecosystem. The question is no longer whether officials have ambitions. It is whether businesses can see projects proceeding quickly enough, and with sufficient commercial substance, to justify staying and expanding. That demands a sharper understanding of competition. Singapore can be a partner and a rival. Shanghai can be a customer, collaborator and competitor. The Greater Bay Area can supply Hong Kong with enormous commercial opportunities while simultaneously taking cargo, talent and investment from it. Those

apparently inconsistent propositions are the reality of a maritime industry in which business moves wherever the overall proposition is strongest. The defensible future is neither a nostalgic campaign to win back every container nor a comfortable acceptance of being the mainland’s legal and financial back office. It is a city that remains indispensable to international shipping because substantive work is done there: ships are managed, cargo is traded, capital is committed, risks are insured and disputes are resolved. By 2030, Hong Kong should be judged less by how many companies have an address in Central or how many development plans have been published, and more by who has authority to do business from the city. Are the next fleet acquisitions decided here? Are traders locating profitable operations here? Are international parties choosing Hong Kong law when they have no obligation to do so? Are young maritime professionals staying because the best opportunities are available here? A gateway is somewhere business passes through. A maritime capital is somewhere business chooses to stay. Hong Kong has spent generations proving it can be both. The coming four years will show whether it still can.

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GOVERNMENT

The five-year clock From tax reform and green bunkering to ship registration and a new partnership with Shanghai, the government is pursuing an increasingly ambitious maritime strategy. The challenge is turning policy commitments into lasting commercial activity

ong Kong’s government is attempting something more ambitious than rescuing a declining container port. It wants to turn the territory into what it calls a “global maritime capital”, earning more from the financing, insuring, managing and fuelling of ships even if fewer containers cross its quays. That change in emphasis has gathered pace throughout 2026. February’s budget proposed fresh shipping incentives, June brought tax legislation, September produced Hong Kong’s first five-year development plan and October has already seen proposed regulatory changes for green bunkering and a new agreement with Shanghai. The latest move came on October 20, when transport and logistics secretary Mable Chan signed a “brother port” cooperation agreement with Shanghai. The two cities intend to coordinate liner services, intermodal logistics, green shipping and maritime professional services. The agreement is significant for a port that has struggled against mainland competition: Hong

Kong’s strategy increasingly relies on partnership rather than attempting to regain its former position in the container rankings. The clearest statement of intent came in the 2026-2030 plan and chief executive John Lee’s September policy address. The administration has explicitly called for a transition from “volume to value”, setting targets to reduce emissions from Kwai Tsing’s container terminals by 30% from 2021 levels, establish five green energy corridors and have 7% of Hong Kong-registered ships take up green maritime fuels by 2030. Green bunkering offers the most visible evidence of policy being translated into operations. Hong Kong completed its first methanol bunkering operation in March, followed days later by methanol bunkering alongside container handling at Kwai Tsing. From June 16, vessels carrying, using or bunkering eligible alternative fuels became entitled to port dues reductions of 25% or 50%, while qualifying Hong Kong-registered green-fuel ships can

claim HK$60,000 annually for three years. The budget earmarks HK$34m for the incentives. In October the government gazetted measures to expand sea room available for green-fuel bunkering from 645 hectares to 2,877 hectares, including seven new anchorages. This is the sort of unglamorous infrastructure reform that matters to owners and suppliers assessing whether vessels can bunker safely without upsetting schedules. Yet storage and supply remain unfinished business. The administration wants green-fuel storage facilities at Tsing Yi South, with planning procedures scheduled for 2027 and tenders in early 2028. It also intends to announce its first green energy corridor with a mainland city later this year, connecting Chinese fuel production with international shipping demand. A green-fuel trading platform and carbon-accounting framework are also being explored. “Owners will ultimately bunker where fuel is available safely, consistently and at a competitive delivered price,” says

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GOVERNMENT

Vikrant Gusain, chief executive of Dockendale Group. It is a reminder that incentives cannot substitute for dependable physical supply.

Finance + Shipping agenda A second strand involves attracting commercial activity ashore. A bill gazetted in June seeks to improve shipping-related tax concessions, including adjustments to accommodate international minimum-tax rules, and introduce half-rate profits tax for qualifying physical commodity traders. The legislation remains before lawmakers in October. The rationale is that commodity trading produces demand for chartering, insurance, finance and maritime legal services. Simply offering lower tax rates to shipowners will not, by itself, rebuild that ecosystem. Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, welcomes the administration’s proposed ‘Finance + Shipping’ agenda, which seeks to join ship finance, marine insurance and arbitration into a more compelling package. The government wants more underwriting capacity for specialist marine risks and is supporting the Hong Kong Shipowners Mutual Assurance Association’s development of international business, alongside promotion of the city’s arbitration services. But Hext offers a useful measure of success. “The next phase should be judged by substantive functions, regional headquarters, underwriting authority, credit decisions, trading desks and skilled jobs, and not by company registrations alone,” he says. Ship registration is another target. The government is preparing legislation to permit dual registration arrangements for bareboat-chartered ships, allowing owners to suspend one registration temporarily while a vessel operates under another flag. The objective is to make Hong Kong’s registry more useful to the increasingly complicated leasing and chartering structures of international fleets. The

changes remain proposals rather than enacted reforms.

At the port At the waterfront, the Port Community System launched in January to connect cargo information across sea, land and air. By September, more than 8,000 enterprises had registered and verified cargo data had supported more than 20 successful trade-finance applications. The next stage promises offshore cargo tracking using blockchain technology, while Kwai Tsing is earmarked for greater use of remotely operated cranes, autonomous electric vehicles and shore power. The city is also seeking new inland cargo through expanded rail-sea and river-sea links and deeper cooperation with Greater Bay Area ports. More direct liner connections to Central and South America are among the government’s priorities.

Talent Then there is talent. Lee has proposed a maritime academy built around cooperation between educational institutions and employers, and the fiveyear plan calls for closer engagement

with mainland training institutions and maritime technology researchers. “If I could choose one thing, it would be accelerating our maritime talent strategy,” says Angad Banga, chief executive of The Caravel Group. “Talent takes far longer to develop.” Promotion is part of the offensive too. The tenth Hong Kong Maritime Week takes place in November, with the government, shipowners and the International Chamber of Shipping bringing international executives together in the territory. The strategy is wide-ranging, but the industry still sees gaps in execution and governance. Horace Lo, group managing director of Modern Terminals, identifies “the establishment of a Maritime and Port Authority, and closer collaboration among ports in the GBA” as priorities. Others want faster progress on physical fuel storage and greater evidence that financing and insurance decisions are actually being made locally. Hong Kong now has a more detailed maritime programme than it has had for years. Its credibility will depend not on how many initiatives are announced, but on whether they bring cargo, capital, specialist jobs and commercial authority back to the city.

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A R R O W S H I P. C O M

OWNERS

Dynasties face the succession test The city’s great shipping families have survived every imaginable market shock. Keeping the next generation – and its capital – anchored in Hong Kong may prove a different challenge

hree sets of initials still define Hong Kong’s rise as a shipowning powerhouse: Y.K. Pao (pictured), C.Y. Tung and T.Y. Chao. Their generation transformed a trading entrepôt into one of the world’s great centres of private shipownership, building fleets across oceans and relationships across political divides. What they created was more than a collection of ships. It was a distinctive business culture: discreet, entrepreneurial, internationally connected and, despite the huge sums involved, keenly aware of financial risk and the danger of assuming that a freight boom will last forever. Its strength has always been an ability to think in decades while trading in markets that can turn in weeks. That instinct is hard earned, not evidence of perfect judgement. The debt crisis that engulfed Orient Overseas following C.Y. Tung’s death in 1982 is a reminder that even the city’s most celebrated shipowners have misread a cycle. Hong Kong’s commercial memory includes the failures as well as the fortunes. Now the question is whether those

instincts can survive another transition: the transfer of control to generations with more ways than ever to invest their inheritance, and more places from which to run a shipping business. Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association (HKSOA), describes owners who combine “global ambition with a healthy respect for cycles”. They have lived through recessions, SARS, the pandemic and repeated geopolitical shocks, he says, and learned to protect liquidity, limit leverage and stay close to their customers and ships. It is a substantial community. HKSOA members owned, managed or operated around 180m dwt at the end of 2025. Those figures are not a count of vessels directly owned by Hong Kong families, but they demonstrate the continuing heft of the wider owner-manager network. Hext also points to owners’ involvement in safety, decarbonisation and talent development. “Those are not the behaviours of a community that has lost interest in its industry,” he says.

Nor has this decade been uniformly miserable for owners. Pandemic-era disruption brought extraordinary returns in some segments, while subsequent wars, rerouting, sanctions and trade tensions created both windfalls and frightening exposure. The successful Hong Kong response has generally been less about calling every market turn than ensuring a business can withstand the next one. Niraj Nanda, chief commercial officer at Anglo-Eastern, points to selective fleet renewal, disposals at attractive prices and the retention of cash. “In a cyclical business, the important discipline is to use the good years not only to grow, but also to prepare for the rainy day that will eventually come,” he says. That conservatism should not be confused with timidity. Wah Kwong Maritime Transport, founded by T.Y. Chao in 1952 and now led by the family’s third generation, has launched Wah Kwong Bulk with ambitions to operate 50 to 60 vessels by 2030. It has also ordered new LR2 tankers and moved into port electrification through its Wah Kwong

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REDEFINING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A RESPONSIBLE SHIP MANAGER

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OWNERS

NatPower venture. This is a traditional shipowning name extending its reach rather than retreating. Elsewhere, Valles Steamship remains in the hands of the Koo family, with a fourth generation involved in the business. The Tung family provides a more complicated illustration of continuity. It sold its flagship liner business, OOCL, to COSCO in 2018, but continues to operate in shipping through the much smaller, privately held Island Navigation. The scale changes; the maritime inheritance survives. The Banga family offers another contemporary succession story. Angad Banga succeeded his father Harry as chief executive of The Caravel Group this year, taking responsibility for a business spanning ships, shipmanagement, commodities and investments, including a significant shareholding in Pacific Basin. “For our family, shipping is not simply an asset class. It is an industry we believe in deeply,” Banga says. His emphasis is on stewardship rather than reinventing the business, and on leaving it stronger for those who follow. Firoze Mirza, chairman of BSM Hong Kong, observes that several established families now have “third and fourth generations in the saddle”. But the picture is not universal. Some heirs regard shipping as a vocation; others see one investment among many. Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern, is candid about the

Shipping has to compete for family capital rather than assume it will inherit it

change. “The picture is mixed, and it would be unfair to generalise,” he says. Families increasingly manage wealth through professional structures, allocating money across property, private credit, technology and other investments. For some, shipping becomes one component of a diversified portfolio rather than the organising purpose of the family business. Vikrant Gusain, chief executive of Dockendale Group, puts the succession challenge sharply: “Shipping therefore has to compete for family capital rather than assume it will inherit it.” More importantly, he argues, the next generation must be able to build a modern shipping enterprise in Hong Kong, not simply administer ships acquired by their parents or grandparents. That brings the debate beyond family loyalty to the city’s competitiveness. Gautam Chellaram, chairman of KC Maritime, identifies “domicile drift” as a particular danger: internationally educated, mobile heirs can put family offices, investment mandates and commercial decisions wherever regulation, costs and opportunities suit them best. Recent events show how quickly that can happen. Hong Kong-listed Pacific Basin moved strategic leadership and

commercial decision-making to Singapore in 2025 amid US-China port-fee tensions, while Seaspan also relocated its headquarters to the city-state. The subsequent suspension of those fees does not undo the lesson: the location of a vessel’s flag, its ownership company and the people making decisions can change with remarkable speed. The threat, therefore, is not an imminent extinction of Hong Kong’s shipping families. It is a gradual thinning out of the city’s decisionmaking ecosystem. If the next generation continues to own vessels but chooses to finance, charter and direct them elsewhere, Hong Kong can retain impressive maritime statistics while losing some of the commercial influence that made those statistics possible. Survival, though, is not quite the same as renewal. Hong Kong needs new principals willing to build companies, not only heirs prepared to preserve existing ones. The survival of this unique breed ultimately depends on more than inherited loyalty. The city must remain somewhere a young owner wants to take risk, build relationships, hire talent and commit capital. The names on the office doors may be familiar, but the business behind them cannot stand still.

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PORT

The reinvention test

Container volumes have almost halved since their 2008 peak, leaving the city’s famous terminals facing uncomfortable questions about their future

n 2008, Hong Kong handled 24.5m teu, making it the world’s third-busiest container port. Last year, throughput had fallen to 12.99m teu, placing the city 14th globally. Few major ports have experienced such a prolonged reversal of fortunes. The figures are particularly uncomfortable given the enormous amount of valuable land devoted to container handling. Kwai Tsing’s nine terminals occupy 279 hectares, with 24 berths and theoretical annual capacity exceeding 20m teu. Last year, they handled just 9.7m teu. Yet Hong Kong’s port is far from finished. September 2026 volumes jumped 24.9% year on year as congestion elsewhere in Asia sent additional business its way. Throughput for the first nine months reached 9.95m teu, up 2.8%. The rebound demonstrates the port’s continuing usefulness as a pressure valve for disrupted regional supply chains, although whether the growth can be sustained is another matter. For Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, the argument about the port’s future has

become too fixated on its position in the container rankings. “Credibility does not require Hong Kong to recreate its 2008 volume rankings,” he says. Hext advocates “a shift from volume to value, not a retreat from the port”, arguing that Kwai Tsing must be assessed within a wider system encompassing logistics, maritime services, finance, green bunkering and supply-chain resilience. This is becoming the central proposition behind Hong Kong’s maritime strategy. The government’s first five-year plan, covering 2026 to 2030, explicitly calls for a transition from volumebased to value-driven development while attempting to stabilise container throughput. The challenge is translating that attractive phrase into a commercially viable future for the physical port. The underlying competitive dynamics are unforgiving. Shenzhen handled more than 35m teu last year and Guangzhou around 28m. Both have extensive manufacturing hinterlands, substantial modern terminal infrastructure and growing direct connections to international markets.

Cargo that once travelled through Hong Kong increasingly moves directly through mainland terminals, eliminating an additional handling operation and the associated transport costs. Moreover, container shipping’s continued consolidation and the restructuring of liner networks favour ports able to offer large cargo concentrations and competitive all-in costs. Hong Kong cannot realistically expect to reverse these developments. Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern, believes the city needs to recognise that reality. “Hong Kong will not out-compete its neighbours on box volume, and it doesn’t need to,” he says. Hojgaard sees the port evolving into a high-value transhipment and feeder hub, integrated with other Greater Bay Area facilities and supported by the city’s international maritime services. Gautam Chellaram, chairman of KC Maritime, similarly argues for specialisation within the regional port network, with Shenzhen focusing on manufacturing exports and Guangzhou

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PORT on inland connections and intermodal logistics. “Hong Kong is and will remain competitive where speed and certainty matter more than the lowest nominal handling charge,” he says. Speed is one of the few competitive advantages the port has demonstrably retained. Hong Kong ranked ninth globally in the World Bank and S&P Global’s 2025 Container Port Performance Index, which measures vessel time in port rather than cargo volumes or overall logistics costs. The city’s customs efficiency, established international liner network, free-port status and separate customs territory remain commercially significant. Matthew McAfee, president of Fairmont Shipping, points to Hong Kong’s position at the entrance to the Pearl River Delta. “It’s less about volumes and more about its unique role as a free port for the region,” he says. But maintaining that advantage requires addressing the actual costs of moving cargo through Hong Kong. Horace Lo, group managing director of Modern Terminals, identifies two immediate priorities: making crossboundary trucking easier and reducing the difference in terminal handling charges imposed by shipping lines between Hong Kong and competing Greater Bay Area ports. These are practical issues rather than grand strategic ambitions. If routing a container through Shenzhen is materially cheaper, Hong Kong’s legal system and financial sophistication will count for little in the shipper’s final calculation. Lo also calls for closer cooperation between regional ports and the establishment of a maritime and port authority with the ability to coordinate development across the sector. The physical infrastructure itself must evolve. The government’s 2026 policy address promises a roadmap for

cargo connections beyond the Pearl River Delta, particularly through railsea services linking inland Chinese manufacturing centres with Hong Kong and through new liner connections serving Central and South America. Hong Kong also retains significant flexibility as a transhipment port, with approximately 60% of its container business involving transhipment cargo. Nevertheless, the question of land use cannot be avoided indefinitely. With Kwai Tsing operating at less than half its stated annual handling capacity, policymakers must confront the economic case for retaining such an extensive terminal footprint. That calculation is more

The underlying competitive dynamics are unforgiving Kwai Tsing’s transformation, including autonomous electric vehicles, more remotely operated cranes and shorepower facilities. Its five-year plan sets a target to reduce carbon emissions from the container terminals by 30% by 2030 compared with 2021. There are opportunities to rebuild

complicated than comparing container volumes with potential property values. Container berths require substantial adjoining yards, road connections and logistics facilities, while withdrawing capacity could damage the port’s ability to accommodate future surges or larger vessel exchanges.

Firoze Mirza, chairman of BSM Hong Kong, believes the answer lies in highervalue cargo, transhipment, digitalisation and a more clearly differentiated role within the regional port cluster. In his assessment, declining throughput reflects fundamental changes in trade patterns rather than a temporary loss of competitiveness. The danger for Hong Kong is that a strategy built around high-value maritime services becomes disconnected from the activity at the waterfront. Finance, insurance and shipmanagement may survive without a dominant container port, but a port cannot survive merely because those businesses remain headquartered nearby. The next few years will determine whether Hong Kong can preserve sufficient cargo flows, liner services and operational economies to justify its infrastructure. Nobody seriously expects a return to the glory days when Hong Kong routinely led the world container rankings. The more important question is whether it can establish a sustainable new role before further cargo migration makes that choice for it.

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PORT

Curbs in the digitalisation drive

Thousands of companies have signed up to the city’s new Port Community System. The harder task is persuading them to share enough information to deliver genuine operational savings

ong Kong’s Port Community System (PCS) has enjoyed an encouraging start. Since its formal rollout in January, more than 8,000 enterprises have registered to use the platform, while more than 20 successful trade-finance applications have drawn on its verified cargo-flow information. For a maritime centre seeking to reinvent itself as a high-value logistics hub, the system represents an important investment. But registrations are one thing. Measurable reductions in the cost and time involved in moving containers are quite another. Angad Banga, chief executive of The Caravel Group, identifies the central difficulty. “Technology is not usually the limiting factor. Trust and adoption are,” he says. The PCS is designed to bring together information previously fragmented among shipping lines, terminals, freight forwarders, trucking companies and cargo interests. It offers realtime cargo tracking across sea, land and air networks, alongside digital documentation and customs-related services. The commercial proposition is straightforward: fewer duplicated declarations, better visibility of cargo movements, faster coordination and, potentially, lower costs. Yet the data required to make the system genuinely

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useful often reside with companies that regard information as commercially sensitive. Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern, argues that the platform’s early adoption is promising, but the real question is how deeply companies use it. “Much of the hidden cost in ports comes from information sitting in separate systems,” he says. For Hojgaard, consistent, standardised data are essential if the platform is to deliver measurable reductions in vessel turnaround times and associated expenses. Gautam Chellaram, chairman of KC Maritime, is equally conscious of the limitations. He warns that if companies use the system primarily for customs formalities while maintaining separate operational databases, “its impact will remain useful but limited”. The government’s ambitions extend beyond routine cargo visibility. The PCS is connected to Guangdong’s e-Port platform to facilitate the reuse of declaration data, while planned enhancements include blockchainbacked tracking of offshore trade cargo. Its potential application to trade finance is particularly interesting. Verified shipment information allows banks to assess transactions using operational evidence rather than relying entirely on paperwork supplied by borrowers. For smaller logistics businesses, that

could improve access to working capital, although the number of successful applications remains modest. Firoze Mirza, chairman of BSM Hong Kong, stresses the importance of clear governance, data security and mutual trust among participants. Those concerns become more significant as additional commercial information enters the system. Paul Haswell, a Hong Kong-based technology lawyer, also draws attention to the cybersecurity implications of increasingly interconnected port infrastructure. Ultimately, Hong Kong needs to demonstrate what its digital investment is actually achieving. Useful measurements would include reductions in container dwell times, truck waiting times, duplicated documentation, cargo-release delays and trade-finance processing costs. Those results would provide a more convincing measure of success than the number of businesses signing up. The PCS has considerable potential, particularly given Hong Kong’s need to differentiate itself from larger mainland ports. But the decisive achievement will not be creating another digital platform. It will be getting competing businesses to use it collaboratively. The technology is available. The industry’s willingness to share information will determine its value.

BUNKERING

The green bet Hong Kong is making a determined push to become a green marine fuel bunkering hub. But with Singapore and mainland Chinese ports already enjoying considerable advantages, can the city carve out a commercially significant role?

ong Kong’s first methanol bunkering operations in March provide a glimpse of a different future for a port that has spent two decades losing container traffic to its mainland neighbours. A bunker barge came alongside a giant COSCO containership as cranes continue working the boxes; 200 tonnes of green methanol pass into the ship without a costly interruption to its schedule. The operation, involving the more than 20,000 teu COSCO Shipping Gemini, took five hours. Days earlier, the car carrier CM Hong Kong received 500 tonnes of certified biomethanol at anchorage. They are modest volumes, but they turn an ambition repeatedly expressed in government policy into something customers can actually buy. The larger question is whether Hong Kong can convert these demonstrations into a business. It wants to become a green maritime fuel bunkering and trading hub at precisely the moment

when Singapore and ports on the Chinese mainland are investing heavily in the same opportunity. And the prize is not simply having new fuels available. It is persuading shipowners to call regularly, fill their tanks and pay a competitive price. “No lead is unassailable in a market that is still being formed,” says Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association. Hong Kong’s advantage, he argues, is the combination of proximity to mainland fuel production with international trading, finance and maritime services, rather than attempting to recreate Singapore’s bunker sales. There is evidence of progress. The territory recorded 16 LNG bunkering operations and 110 biodiesel operations in 2025, supplying more than 220,000 tonnes of fuels the government classifies as green. Its first ship-to-ship LNG bunker transfer took place in February last year, with simultaneous bunkering and cargo handling becoming established at Modern

Terminals. The terminal also hosted Hong Kong’s first B100 biodiesel operation last December. Yet the numbers need context. The 220,000-tonne headline encompasses fossil LNG as well as biofuels, and should not be confused with 220,000 tonnes of zero-emission fuel. The March methanol breakthrough is similarly more nuanced than the publicity suggests: along with its 500 tonnes of certified biomethanol, CM Hong Kong also took on 1,000 tonnes of conventional methanol. Singapore sold 56.77m tonnes of marine fuels in 2025, including about 1.95m tonnes of alternative fuels, and issued five-year methanol supply licences from the start of 2026. Zhoushan sold 8.03m tonnes of bunkers. Shanghai, which bunkered some 10,000 tonnes of green methanol in 2025, completes an 8,000-tonne green methanol delivery in August 2026. Hong Kong is not in the same weight division on physical scale. KC Maritime chairman Gautam

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BUNKERING

Chellaram accepts that the Singapore and Shanghai-Zhoushan cluster have a substantial head start. Hong Kong, he suggests, should aim for a commercially significant role, not necessarily the largest in physical volume, by adding trading, certification, financing and price discovery to selective bunkering.

Government intervention The government has begun changing the economics. From June this year, qualifying ships using, carrying or bunkering designated fuels can receive 25% or 50% concessions on port dues. A separate incentive scheme rewards pioneering suppliers. In October, the authorities gazetted proposals to expand the area available for green-fuel bunkering from 645 hectares to 2,877 hectares, including seven new anchorages. But there is a significant gap between having space in the water and having fuel waiting at the right place. The ninehectare storage site at Tsing Yi South, first put to the market for expressions of interest in 2025, is not scheduled for tender until early 2028. Existing oil tanks may be converted in the meantime, but the timetable illustrates how slowly fixed infrastructure can move relative to announcements. Modern Terminals group managing director Horace Lo welcomes the early ship-to-ship successes but wants the government to accelerate developments and provide more support to establish physical infrastructure for alternative fuels. Storage, suitable bunker craft, safety approvals and the ability to work alongside cargo operations all determine whether a ship can refuel without losing a

No lead is unassailable in a market that is still being formed berth window. The mainland provides both the solution and the threat. The biomethanol supplied to CM Hong Kong came from CIMC Enric’s plant at Zhanjiang in Guangdong, carried through a supply chain involving Sinopec and a specialist bunker vessel. But the same Daqing 268 barge later bunkered a methanol-fuelled bulker at Guangzhou. Neighbouring Chinese ports can tap the same producers without necessarily routing the fuel through Hong Kong.

Contracts rather than tanks The city is therefore placing part of its bet on contracts rather than tanks. Its latest five-year plan envisages production, storage and transportation on the mainland, with bunkering and trading in Hong Kong. Officials promise the first energy-supply corridor with a mainland city before the end of the year, alongside a separate green shipping corridor with a trading partner. The government also wants a fuel-trading platform and a transparent carbon-accounting framework. Splash has already reported the emerging private-sector response. Wah Kwong’s Venture Energy has signed green methanol supply arrangements with Shanghai Shenji Energy and explord longer-term offtake and a trading platform. The cost gap remains punishing. The Global Maritime Forum estimates that

even China’s relatively competitive green methanol and ammonia cost two to three times their conventional alternatives. Who pays that premium is as important as where fuel is stored. Dual-fuel machinery does not guarantee operators will burn certified green fuel, while the carbon benefit depends on feedstock, production methods and credible verification. Angad Banga, chief executive of The Caravel Group, maintains that the scale of shipping’s energy transition is too large to be served by a single hub. RINA’s Hong Kong commercial director Brian Yam points to certification, traceability and lifecycle-emissions verification as services in which Hong Kong can create value beyond delivering fuel to a ship. For shipmanagers, however, the commercial test is unforgiving. Niraj Nanda, chief commercial officer at AngloEastern, singles out reliability of supply, competitive pricing and the ability to bunker without delaying the vessel as the essentials. Those conditions, not another partnership announcement, will decide how much of the emerging business Hong Kong actually captures. Hong Kong needs a repeatable role in the southern Chinese fuel supply chain, backed by competitive deliveries, internationally accepted emissions documentation and customers signing real contracts. The city has proved that green methanol can reach ships in its waters. The tougher part is persuading those ships to come back for more.

The global cruise business source

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GREATER BAY AREA

Lifeline or its biggest rival? The ports of Shenzhen and Guangzhou are winning the battle for boxes, but the economic powerhouse on Hong Kong’s doorstep offers something potentially more valuable than container traffic. The test is whether the city’s maritime businesses capture that value or watch it move across the border

ew sets of figures capture Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Area dilemma as clearly as the latest results from Hutchison Port Holdings Trust. During the first half of 2026, throughput at its Yantian terminals in Shenzhen climbed 10%, while volumes at its three Hong Kong terminals fell 5%. Mainland operations generated 83% of the trust’s revenues, leaving Hong Kong with 17%. The business is doing well out of the Greater Bay Area. Its home port is not. Hong Kong handled 12.99m teu last year, down 5.1%, and first-half 2026 throughput slipped another 3%. Shenzhen moved 35.4m teu in 2025 and Guangzhou 28.1m. Together, the three ports handled more than 76m teu, but Hong Kong’s share was barely 17%. The shift is structural. Factories that once sent cargo across the border to Hong Kong now have direct access to massive mainland terminals, deepwater berths and increasingly comprehensive liner networks. Why pay for another border crossing and additional handling when a containership can load closer to the factory?

86m people Yet the same geography places Hong Kong beside an economic region of more than 86m people, encompassing Guangdong’s manufacturers,

Shenzhen’s technology businesses and some of China’s busiest trading corridors. It is an extraordinary potential customer base for financiers, insurers, shipmanagers and maritime lawyers. Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, acknowledges both sides of the argument. The Greater Bay Area brings formidable competition, but also access to industrial and trading networks that most maritime centres could only envy. “The GBA supplies scale, cargo, technology and increasingly green energy; Hong Kong connects those strengths to global capital, contracts, risk management and markets,” he says. Those links are hardly theoretical. In 2025, nearly 48% of Hong Kong’s laden-container throughput involved the mainland, and about two-thirds of those movements were connected with the Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong remains part of the region’s trading machinery even as its role as the default gateway for southern Chinese exports fades. The more interesting question is which parts of a transaction happen where. A ship may bunker in the Pearl River Delta, be built at a Chinese yard, carry Guangdong exports and still require a Hong Kong lender, manager, insurer or arbitration clause. Cargo does not have to cross Hong Kong’s

quays for professional services to earn revenue from it. Angad Banga, chief executive of The Caravel Group, stresses that shipping follows the decisions made by traders, financiers and cargo interests. Hong Kong’s opportunity lies in staying close to those decisions rather than waiting for containers to arrive at Kwai Tsing. That requires a distinction between being near business and actually winning it. Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are developing their own financial and professional ecosystems. A company’s registered address in Hong Kong is a poor substitute for underwriting authority, commercial principals and specialist staff actually based there.

Unique strengths Rosita Lau, a partner at Ince, argues that “Hong Kong has its unique strengths which none of the other GBA cities has”, pointing particularly to its common-law framework and established international maritime legal services. But those advantages need to be sold, not assumed. The availability of Hong Kong arbitration is irrelevant if shipowners and charterers sign contracts choosing another jurisdiction. Nor can the physical port simply declare victory by redefining success. Kwai Tsing still supports cargo

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businesses, employment, bunkering and maritime services. As box numbers contract, the costs of operating a huge terminal estate are spread over fewer movements, while reduced deepsea liner calls make a transhipment hub less attractive to the next carrier planning its network. Modern Terminals group managing director Horace Lo identifies the friction in practical terms. Among the industry’s requests is the need to reduce the gap in the terminal handling charges applied by shipping lines between Hong Kong and other ports in the GBA, alongside better cross-boundary trucking arrangements. These are issues of price and reliability, not regional branding. A shipper choosing between a direct mainland call and a more complicated movement through Hong Kong will generally favour the cheaper, faster route. Hong Kong’s first Five-Year Plan and September policy address consequently placed fresh emphasis on feeder connections with Huizhou, Dongguan and other Guangdong cities, riversea transport and a differentiated relationship with Shenzhen’s Yantian terminal.

Officials also want Hong Kong to concentrate more Central and South American services, making the port useful to cargo owners requiring particular routes rather than attempting to compete for every box. There is a tangible example further inland. The government says scheduled Chengdu- and Chongqing-to-Shenzhen rail services, coupled with the ShenzhenHong Kong Connect feeder, can reduce cargo transportation times to Hong Kong from two to four weeks to approximately three days. A Chongqing-Qinzhou-Hong Kong sea-rail service has also been launched. Digital infrastructure offers another test. More than 8,000 companies have registered for Hong Kong’s new Port Community System, and the government reports more than 20 successful tradefinance applications using trusted cargo data. The longer-term potential is to connect port movements, customs information and bank lending across the regional supply chain. The harder task is securing reliable data-sharing between businesses and jurisdictions with different systems and incentives.

Another cross-border initiative has emerged in green shipping. Wah Kwong NatPower and Chu Kong Shipping are exploring electric inland vessels, charging and battery-swapping across Guangdong and Hong Kong. But this, too, must move beyond memoranda of understanding before it changes vessel deployment or port competitiveness. Isabel Tse, managing director of W V Ocean Consultancy and president of WISTA Hong Kong, sums up the dilemma. “Competition has intensified, but the Greater Bay Area also creates opportunities for Hong Kong to serve as a professional, financial, legal, and maritime services hub supporting regional trade.” Hext argues that Hong Kong’s future is as “a highly connected, technologyenabled, service-rich port, not merely the region’s largest container yard”. Ultimately, the success of Greater Bay Area integration will not be measured by another regional cooperation agreement. It will be measured in liner calls retained, Guangdong cargo attracted, cross-border costs removed, contracts written under Hong Kong law and high-value jobs created in the city.

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Preparing for the next chapter of shipping starts today

從今天開始準備迎接航運業的新篇章

Geopolitical pressures, increasing regulatory compliance, financial and funding stresses…

全球航運業正被地緣政治的不確定性、不斷變化的制裁機制、減碳承諾、日益嚴格的監管審查以及財務壓力所重塑。

The shipping sector needs legal advice from experts that understand its commercial backdrop – anticipating the challenges of the future, as well as the opportunities. As a top 10 global law firm with over 90 offices across the world, CMS and its shipping experts work with investors, owners, brokers, insurers and other players in the industry on both day-to-day issues and the most complex transactions and disputes.

CMS 依靠法律專業知識與深厚的行業經驗，幫助客戶管理風險、把握機遇，並在變革中保持行業領先地位。作為全球十大律所之一，CMS 在全球設有 90 多個辦公室，為行業提供涵蓋航運事務全方位的支持，從運營問題到複雜的交易、融資及爭議解決。

Key contacts / 主要聯絡人: Disputes / 爭端解決:

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Andrew Horton (賀敦) E andrew.horton@cms-hk.com T +852 2533 7803 M +852 9260 7733

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Steven Wise (韋樹勳) E steven.wise@cms-hk.com T +852 2533 7802 M +852 6278 9194

Further information, including a list of our offices, can be found at cms.law © CMS Hong Kong LLP 2026 2610-0212576-2

Finance and Commercial / 融资及商法: Conor Warde (魏丞泰) E conor.warde@cms-hk.com T +852 2533 7833 M +852 6847 2922 Tim Elliott E tim.elliott@cms-cmno.com T +852 2533 7878 M +852 5280 3502

FLAG

At half mast The city’s ship register has shed more than 20m gt since 2024 amid the USChina port-fee confrontation. Its technical reputation has survived. Winning back the ships, and the confidence behind them, is another matter

or decades, registering a ship in Hong Kong has been an unremarkable commercial decision: reliable administration, competitive costs, strong port state control results and a legal system familiar to international financiers. Last year, the same decision suddenly acquired a geopolitical price tag. As Washington prepared to charge China-linked ships for calling at American ports, some of Hong Kong’s most recognisable shipowning names moved vessels to alternative flags. Singapore emerged as the principal beneficiary. What began as a response to a proposed American trade measure became a test of the territory’s place in international shipping. The extent of the damage is difficult to disguise. Hong Kong ended 2024 with about 2,300 registered vessels totalling 132m gross tonnes. By June this year its register held 2,013 vessels totalling 109m

gt. It had surrendered fourth place in the global flag rankings to Singapore, whose register swelled 27% to 137m gt during 2025. Seaspan shifted large numbers of containerships to Singapore, while Pacific Basin restructured around Singaporean ownership and registry for roughly half its owned fleet. The US Trade Representative’s Section 301 scheme began on October 14, 2025, imposing a $50-per-net-ton fee on vessels owned or operated by Chinese entities, with a separate levy on qualifying Chinese-built ships. Hong Kong entities fell within the relevant definition of Chinese ownership or operation. Crucially, the Hong Kong flag alone did not automatically trigger the charge. A ship changing flags could still be exposed through its ownership, operator or place of build. That distinction hardly reassured owners facing uncertain chartering arrangements, vessel deployment and

multimillion-dollar potential costs. Where commercial counterparties perceive a China-linked exposure, a familiar and technically respected flag can become an additional complication rather than a selling point. Washington and Beijing agreed a truce, and the American maritime fees were suspended from November 10 last year. The prospect of another deadline is hardly conducive to owners returning to the Hong Kong flag.

Beyond geopolitics Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, argues that the registry should be judged by more than geopolitics. “Owners assess every flag against a mixture of market access, regulation, service quality, cost and geopolitical risk,” he says. He points to the Hong Kong

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fleet’s average detention rate of 0.77% in 2023–25, against a global 3.46%, together with its continued position on the Paris and Tokyo port state control white lists and the US Coast Guard’s Qualship 21 programme. There is no equivalent technical deterioration to explain the decline in tonnage. Others are less willing to dismiss a geopolitical handicap. Vikrant Gusain, chief executive of Dockendale Group, concedes: “There probably is some geopolitical discount attached to the Hong Kong flag today.” Fairmont Shipping president Matthew McAfee acknowledges the political damage but insists that what makes Hong Kong and the Hong Kong flag attractive has not changed, citing the common-law system, mortgage protections and Marine Department expertise.

Government response The government has responded with a combination of incentives and regulatory reform. A block-registration scheme introduced in February 2025 offers refunds on initial registration charges and first-year tonnage fees for qualifying groups of ships. The sums, however, are modest when set against the potential cost of a contested American port call. A more important change is proposed dual registration. The current Hong Kong

Trade digitalisation remains a weak point regime does not permit a ship to retain an underlying Hong Kong registration while operating under a separate bareboat charter flag. The government’s planned legislation would allow that flexibility, making it easier to retain Hong Kong’s mortgage and ownership framework when commercial circumstances require another operating flag. Hext says: “Reform should not be represented as a cosmetic answer to geopolitics.” Janice Lee, a partner at Hill Dickinson, is similarly sceptical that changes to registration mechanics alone will sway owners; the underlying problem, she argues, is “political perception rather than registry mechanics”. The insurance market brings another perspective. Julie Zhu, an underwriter at West P&I, says the appeal of a flag ultimately depends on “regulatory stability, consistency in survey standards, and clarity in legal recourse”. An international reputation is built on decisions made over decades, not the size of one year’s fleet. There is also a reputational distinction worth protecting. Hong Kong companies appear in complex ownership structures for vessels elsewhere in the world, including ships facing sanctions scrutiny. That does not mean the same ships fly the Hong Kong flag. Confusing company

incorporation, beneficial ownership and flag administration risks unfairly importing one set of compliance concerns into another, but it also strengthens the argument for rigorous checks and transparency.

Strengths The register still has substantial strengths. Its Marine Department provides technical support through overseas desks, international shipping income enjoys favourable tax treatment, and the flag remains linked to a formidable community of shipmanagers, lawyers, lenders and insurers. Yet those advantages compete against commercial memory. A transfer to another flag requires documentation, lenders’ agreement and operating adjustments; companies that have established new structures are unlikely to reverse them just because a tariff is temporarily suspended. Some strategic management decisions have moved with the ships. The challenge for Hong Kong is therefore larger than recovering its old fourth-place ranking. It must give internationally trading owners practical flexibility, preserve regulatory quality and demonstrate that the next geopolitical shock will not force another hurried change of ensign.

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FINANCE

Who calls the shots? Tax incentives, Chinese leasing capital and a deep banking network are keeping Hong Kong relevant to global shipping. But the industry’s biggest question is whether deals are genuinely made in the city, or merely booked there

major containership financing this autumn illustrates both Hong Kong’s reach and its limitations. Global Ship Lease’s new $1bn syndicated facility includes Bank of China (Hong Kong) and BOCOM Hong Kong among eight lenders supporting 15 newbuildings. But Bank of America is the bookrunner, and the money comes from a syndicate spanning three continents. A vessel can be ordered in China, owned through another jurisdiction, financed by multiple banks and leased to a charterer thousands of miles away. Where, then, does the financial centre sit? Hong Kong is determined that the answer should increasingly be Hong Kong. The government’s 2026 Policy Address introduced a Finance + Shipping agenda, promising closer integration of ship lending, marine insurance, commonlaw documentation and arbitration. The aim is to become more than a location for

leasing vehicles. The backdrop is an expanding global financing market. Petrofin calculates that the world’s 40 largest shipping banks held $300.6bn in loans at the end of 2025, up 6% year-on-year, while leasing and alternative capital providers are taking an increasingly important role. Hong Kong is hardly starting from nothing. Hong Kong Trade Development Council figures show HK$105bn ($13.5bn) in shipping loans and advances booked locally at the end of June, equivalent to 1.4% of loans for use in Hong Kong. Some overseas-booked loans involving Hong Kong professionals are not captured in that total. Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, rejects the idea that finance either originates in Hong Kong or is controlled entirely from Beijing and Shanghai. “Modern ship finance is often

originated, structured, syndicated, insured and documented across several centres,” he says. Hong Kong’s opportunity is to assemble those functions around its banks, common-law contracts, capital markets and proximity to mainland Chinese shipping customers.

The growth of ship leasing Ship leasing is where policy has delivered the most measurable growth. Since 2020, qualifying ship lessors have enjoyed a zero profits-tax rate, while eligible leasing managers receive an 8.25% rate. Government figures show the number of qualifying leasing enterprises rose from 11 in 2020/21 to 46 in 2022/23. But enterprise numbers do not measure loans originated or jobs created. The business has genuine scale. Hong Kong-listed CSSC Shipping, backed by

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FINANCE

China State Shipbuilding Corporation, had 130 vessels in its leasing portfolio, including 23 under construction, as of June. This year it raised HK$2.338bn in convertible bonds, while its growing fleet business illustrates the links between Chinese yards, capital markets and vessel leasing. Independent firms add another dimension. SeaKapital, established in 2023 by shipowner Sabrina Chao and former Credit Agricole Asia Shipfinance chief Kenneth Lam, aims to connect shipping assets with international investors from its Hong Kong base. However, local incorporation does not automatically mean local control. KC Maritime chairman Gautam Chellaram draws an important distinction between international banks and independent leasing businesses that make financing decisions in the city and major mainland leasing groups whose pricing, credit approvals and portfolio strategy are largely set across the border. “I believe Hong Kong is doing both, depending on which part of the market we consider,” he says. Chellaram sees little clear evidence that tax breaks alone have brought substantial relocations of head offices, investment mandates and senior decision-makers. “Tax is necessary but not sufficient,” Hext says. What matters is attracting people with real lending authority, not just low-tax structures.

The mainland bridge Angad Banga, chief executive of The Caravel Group, argues that the question should not be reduced to a contest between Hong Kong and the mainland. “Shipping finance is increasingly collaborative rather than concentrated in a single city,” he says. Hong Kong connects global capital and legal expertise to China’s enormous trading and shipbuilding economy. Singapore nevertheless remains a formidable competitor. Its maritime authority identifies more than 20 major banks with ship-finance portfolios, alongside shipping trusts, investment banks and private equity providers.

Shipping finance is increasingly collaborative rather than concentrated in a single city Beyond tax incentives, its concentration of charterers, commodity traders and commercial principals brings lenders physically closer to customers and decisions.

underwritten first-loss guarantee and co-investment facility for cleaner ships and related infrastructure. Such a scheme would involve more direct risk-sharing than another tax break.

New legislation

Geopolitics

Hong Kong’s concessions are being updated. Legislation introduced in June proposed improved tax treatment of ship acquisition costs for qualifying operating lessors, alongside an elective 15% tax-rate option aimed at reducing compliance complexity for multinational groups subject to international minimumtax rules. The broader package also targeted physical commodity traders, whose presence could deepen the city’s commercial shipping network. Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern, sees scope for expansion, particularly as fleet renewal and decarbonisation demand more capital. “Hong Kong has the banking, capitalmarkets and advisory depth to play a larger role in ship finance, leasing and green maritime investment than it does today,” he says. Hong Kong’s five-year plan identifies green newbuildings, retrofits and cross-border renminbi settlement as opportunities. But financing the transition means assessing future fuel availability, charter income, technology risk and residual ship values. Chellaram proposes a commercially

Another test is geopolitical. Splash has reported Chinese lessors turning to Maltese flag structures to rebuild financing relationships with European owners as China-related commercial concerns mount. Hong Kong’s separate legal and financial system can facilitate cross-border transactions, but cannot entirely remove the political risks perceived by counterparties. Firoze Mirza, chairman of BSM Hong Kong, describes ship finance and leasing as part of an increasingly integrated mainland-Hong Kong financial system. “This is not a matter of ‘who leads’, but of how the whole system can more effectively serve the maritime economy,” he says. Hext argues the decisive measures should be local underwriting authority, credit decisions, trading desks, skilled jobs and headquarters, rather than company registrations alone. The territory remains a substantial ship finance centre, not merely a postal address. But the next stage of its revival depends on persuading more financiers not just to sign and book deals in Hong Kong, but to make the decisions there.

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SHIPMANAGEMENT

Staying power The city has retained an extraordinary concentration of shipmanagement expertise as other maritime services become more mobile. Can its advantage survive the next generation of competition?

t first glance, shipmanagement should be one of the easiest maritime businesses to move. Its ships operate worldwide, its crews come from many countries and its owners can be thousands of miles away. It is an assetlight industry increasingly connected by digital systems. Yet Hong Kong has retained a concentration of shipmanagers that few shipping centres can rival. Anglo-Eastern, Fleet Management and Wallem all have their headquarters in the city. All three feature among the world’s leading third-party managers. Five of the global top ten have operations in Hong Kong, according to the government, while roughly 340 ship agencies and management businesses operate locally. In an economy where container volumes have fallen sharply and some brokerage and financing activity has gravitated elsewhere, this is a striking piece of maritime resilience. The explanation, says Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, lies in decades of operating experience, a substantial owner base and a culture that treats safety, seafarer welfare and cost discipline as fundamental. It is accumulated capability

rather than a favourable moment in the freight cycle.

Deep roots The roots run deep. Anglo-Eastern has operated from Hong Kong since 1974. Wallem marked a century in the city last year. Fleet Management, established in 1994, now supports more than 600 vessels, some 27,000 seafarers worldwide and a pipeline of more than 150 newbuilding projects. “Shipmanagement is fundamentally a people business,” says Angad Banga, chief executive of Fleet’s parent, The Caravel Group. His case for the city rests on technical capability, governance, operational discipline and trust, reinforced by longstanding investment in seafarer training and shore-based professionals. “Shipmanagement is a people-andproximity business,” says Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern, who describes Hong Kong as a natural “control room” for Asian fleets. Technical, crewing and operations teams sit close to owners, shipyards and service providers. The Pearl River Delta’s repair and manufacturing

base is nearby, while the time zone connects markets stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. Access to class, insurers, bankers and suppliers completes the picture. There is a paradox here. The business is asset-light, but its infrastructure is not simply an office tower and a server. It is a network of experienced superintendents, crewing and training systems, procurement relationships, safety procedures, information flows and owners willing to trust a manager with assets worth tens of millions of dollars.

Not a flighty business “Knowledge, relationships and operational experience are difficult to relocate,” says Ioannis Stefanou, Wallem Group’s managing director of shipmanagement. He sees Hong Kong’s combination of Asian proximity, international business practices and technical execution as a significant differentiator. Gautam Chellaram, chairman of KC Maritime, identifies what he calls the industry’s high structural switching costs. Owners can change flags or brokers relatively quickly, he argues,

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SHIPMANAGEMENT

but “rebuilding a comparable seafarertraining, crewing, and technicalmanagement platform elsewhere would take years”. This makes technical management less flighty than the services organised around individual transactions or pools of capital. Vikrant Gusain, chief executive of Dockendale Group, draws the distinction with finance and broking. Those sectors move towards the places where counterparties, traders and decisionmakers cluster. Once that happens, tax breaks alone may not be enough to bring the business back. Shipmanagement, by contrast, needs organisations capable of running vessels safely every day, not just originating the next deal. The migration narrative also needs qualification. Hong Kong has not lost its marine insurance industry: 11 of the 12 International Group P&I clubs maintain a presence, while the territory had 86 authorised ship insurers at the end of June. West P&I expanded into larger Hong Kong premises this year. Deborah Yu, regional director for Asia at London P&I, points to the “ecosystem of expertise, reliance and trust” that keeps insurers close to owners and managers. There is, however, a distinction between having a local office and locating underwriting authority, trading desks or capital-allocation decisions in Hong Kong. “What Hong Kong needs is greater depth: more local underwriting authority, specialty risk capacity, commodity-linked broking and finance origination,” Hext says. Eight of the world’s ten leading shipfinance bookrunners have a presence in Hong Kong, but a presence does not establish where substantive decisions are taken. Nor should Hong Kong’s shipmanagement lead be treated as permanent. Singapore has assembled a powerful maritime cluster around chartering, commodities, bunkering and finance, and is pursuing shipmanagement too. Chellaram warns that high costs and shortages of experienced technical managers could cause future expansion to go elsewhere, even while headquarters addresses remain unchanged.

People problems People are the industry’s most vulnerable

Knowledge, relationships and operational experience are difficult to relocate infrastructure. Hong Kong’s 2024 maritime manpower survey records a 9.1% turnover rate among shore-based maritime employees, across all disciplines. The more worrying gap, interviewees suggest, is in the middle ranks: superintendents and technical managers with enough time at sea and ashore to handle complex fleets and emergencies. Firoze Mirza, chairman of BSM Hong Kong, says the city’s ability to bring in experienced overseas staff remains an underappreciated “soft magnet”. Gusain likewise praises access to international talent, while noting Singapore’s more proactive official approach to attracting shipping businesses. Neither advantage should be assumed to survive without investment. The demands on managers are also becoming more exacting. Dual-fuel vessels, emissions reporting, cyber risks, sanctions compliance and increasingly sophisticated remote monitoring require expertise well beyond traditional maintenance and crewing. The largest

managers have the scale to invest. Across its global training network, Fleet says more than 1,750 seafarers and technical professionals have completed dualfuel and low-emission fuel training. Technology could, however, make it easier over time to disperse management functions geographically. That makes the distinction between a headquarters and an operating centre critical. Hong Kong can defend its lead by keeping the people who make technical decisions, train crews and manage risk, while developing the next generation of specialists. Qualifying shipmanagers have enjoyed a reduced 8.25% profits tax rate since 2022, but a tax rate or registered address is no substitute. For now the city remains a formidable shipmanagement capital, not because it is impossible to leave, but because decades of expertise cannot be packed into a suitcase. The danger is not a sudden exodus. It is the slow relocation of future hiring, training and decisionmaking until the headquarters is the last thing left.

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RECRUITMENT

The missing middle The city wants to expand its role in global shipping, but its maritime ambitions face a stubborn recruitment problem. Finding graduates is one thing; attracting and retaining the experienced professionals needed to run an international maritime centre is quite another

ong Kong has no shortage of ambitions for its maritime industry. It wants to become a centre for green fuel trading, ship finance, digital technology and sophisticated fleet management. But there is one asset that cannot be imported overnight: an experienced marine superintendent who has spent years at sea and knows how to keep an increasingly complex fleet operating safely. The city’s problem is not simply persuading school-leavers to consider a career in shipping. It is attracting and retaining the people 10 or 15 years further along, when hard-won technical knowledge meets commercial judgment and when employers in Singapore, mainland China and industries far beyond shipping are competing for the same individuals.

Revealing numbers The Vocational Training Council’s latest maritime manpower survey counts 25,993 employees in 2024, including non-Hong Kong seafarers, with 13,746 in shore-based jobs. It records just 384 vacancies, including 192 ashore, but a 9.1% turnover rate among shore-based staff. A low snapshot vacancy rate does not mean companies can easily find a chief engineer turned superintendent, an experienced claims handler or a specialist surveyor. Richard Hext, chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, says “talent is one of the sector’s most urgent execution challenges”. Hong Kong needs not just new graduates, he argues, but professionals who can move

from seagoing and technical roles into commercial and leadership positions. Earlier VTC research identified a hollowed-out middle in high-value maritime services, with senior staff nearing retirement and junior employees still acquiring experience. It also identified a shortage of people with seagoing qualifications for jobs such as port captain, technical superintendent and ship surveyor. Even the Marine Department has struggled to fill its specialist positions. At classification society RINA, the shortage is practical rather than theoretical. Brian Yam, its commercial director for Hong Kong and Taiwan, says one particular difficulty is hiring experienced ship surveyors locally. Local pathways into naval architecture and marine engineering are limited, and

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Mid-career is the point where many professionals weigh a move into adjacent sectors relatively few Hong Kong youngsters spend the years at sea needed to acquire the qualifications and experience employers want.

Career ladders There is a fundamental timing problem. A short course can teach a new regulation; it cannot produce the judgment gained from an engine-room failure, a drydocking or years of managing crews and contractors. Shipmanagers are responding by building their own career ladders. AngloEastern chief executive Bjorn Hojgaard says five members of the company’s executive management team started their careers at sea and approximately 75% of its shore managers have been promoted from its seagoing workforce. “Mid-career is the point where many professionals weigh a move into adjacent sectors,” he says. Employers must offer progression, mentoring and competitive rewards before valuable experience walks out of the maritime sector altogether.

Quality of life Hong Kong is also competing on quality of life. Housing costs, education, family considerations and alternative careers in finance, technology and family offices affect whether a specialist accepts a posting or stays for the long term. Tax concessions for maritime businesses are of limited use if they create additional corporate structures without bringing experienced decision-makers and their families to the city. Vikrant Gusain, chief executive of Dockendale Group, makes a revealing point about the labour market. At midcareer, people make decisions based on “career optionality — having 10 potential employers rather than two”. An attractive maritime centre therefore needs competing companies, not merely a few very large ones. Recruitment becomes easier when changing jobs does not also mean changing countries.

Insurance faces much the same challenge. Deborah Yu, regional director for Asia at London P&I, says: “Mid-career professionals are mobile and have attractive opportunities in many other regional hubs.” Underwriters, claims handlers and specialist surveyors need both competitive remuneration and credible prospects of advancement. The technical requirements are changing, too. Methanol and ammonia, cyber security, emissions verification, remote monitoring and AI are creating new jobs while changing established ones. Ioannis Stefanou, managing director of shipmanagement at Wallem Group, says the competition for skilled professionals extends far beyond shipping. The industry needs to show younger recruits that maritime careers are global, technologically advanced and connected to decarbonisation rather than simply selling a lifetime of paperwork and port calls.

Progress There are signs of action. The Hong Kong Shipowners Association launched its academy earlier this month, building on a 16-organisation Maritime Talent Cultivation Alliance established last year. The academy is intended to upgrade members’ knowledge and skills, not simply introduce schoolchildren to the industry. The government’s September policy address also proposed a maritime academy and an institution-enterprise training model with clearer crossdisciplinary career pathways. Training already has tangible public backing. Hong Kong pays eligible deck and engineer cadets HK$10,000 a month during qualifying sea service, and its maritime training fund supports further professional courses and examinations. In April, the government and industry partners organised a train-the-trainer programme on green marine fuels, recognising that new bunkering infrastructure is of little value without

people who know how to use it safely. Hext says maritime careers must become “more visible, portable and future-facing”. Structured internships, recognised sea-to-shore qualifications and mid-career transfers could help turn isolated training programmes into genuine progression routes. The next test is not how many academies open or how many students attend a career fair. It is how many surveyors, fleet managers, brokers, claims specialists and marine engineers actually take posts in Hong Kong, and how many remain five years later. The city can fund a ship, register it and insure it. Keeping the know-how needed to operate all three businesses may be the more demanding investment.

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OPINION

The changes needed One change, overnight, commercial or regulatory, to secure Hong Kong’s maritime future to 2030. What is it?

“Hong Kong’s position as a global maritime capital has been built on decades of improvements to its commercial and regulatory environment.” Richard Hext, chairman, Hong Kong Shipowners Association

“Among the most important priorities are the establishment of a Maritime and Port Authority, and closer collaboration among ports in the GBA.” Horace Lo, group managing director, Modern Terminals

“The highest-leverage initiative would be a government-backed but commercially underwritten first-loss guarantee and co-investment facility for vessel finance.” Gautam Chellaram, chairman, KC Maritime

“Hong Kong’s opportunity is to keep pushing the digital and green agenda while leveraging its international DNA, its integration with the Greater Bay Area, and the city’s leadership in maritime services.” Ioannis Stefanou, managing director of shipmanagement at Wallem Group

“A green tax credit whereby owners will receive favourable tax treatment if they sign long-term green fuel supply contracts.” Gary Wong, partner, Hill Dickinson

“Regulatory reform, without doubt. A clear and responsive regulatory framework would do more to secure Hong Kong’s maritime future than any single commercial initiative.” Vikrant Gusain, CEO, Dockendale Group

“If I could choose one thing, it would be accelerating our maritime talent strategy.” Angad Banga, CEO, The Caravel Group

“A big and organised entity which really has the power to look after all aspects of the maritime industry of Hong Kong.” Rosita Lau, partner, Ince

“Make mainland access increasingly frictionless, while protecting and strengthening the institutional distinctiveness that sets Hong Kong apart.” Bjorn Hojgaard, CEO, Anglo-Eastern

“Establish a comprehensive maritime talent and innovation strategy that attracts international professionals, supports digitalisation, and accelerates the transition to green shipping.” Isabel Tse, president, WISTA Hong Kong

“Establish a high-level maritime authority with the mandate and accountability to lead strategic projects across bureaux and departments.” Brian Yam, commercial director, Hong Kong and Taiwan, RINA

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