Malta's maritime sector now accounts for 14 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, Transport Minister Ian Borg has said, with the country having doubled the tonnage on registered vessels in the past nine years. 

Some 9,300 vessels were registered in Malta last year, generating €24 million in income for the Malta Ship Registry. 

“The maritime industry has multiple facets but when we focus on the register we can really understand the success we’ve had and how that has translated into tangible value for the country,” Borg said. 

Maritime sector by the numbers

The tonnage on Maltese registered vessels, which is the total carrying capacity of all the vessels registered in Malta, went from 49 million tonnes in 2012 to 86.1 million tonnes at the end of 2021, the minister said. 

The number of registered vessels last year marked an increase of 2.2 per cent on the year prior. 

When compared with 2012, Malta has increased its merchant vessel registry by 82 per cent, Borg said, with the maritime industry now accounting for 14 per cent of the gross domestic product. 

Some 100,000 sailors had also been registered as marine crew members in Malta. 

1,000 superyachts

When it comes to superyachts, which are categorised as pleasure vessels that are 24 metres or over in length, Malta still has the largest number of vessels globally. 

At the end of 2021, there were 1,000 superyachts registered in Malta, up from 850 in 2020, which at the time was also the largest superyacht registry in the world.

Borg said as a registrar of vessels, Malta has the biggest flag in the European Union and the sixth-largest in the world and for the 13th time has been elected on the council of the International Maritime Organization. 

Thanks to a study commissioned through EU funding, Malta has also devised a strategy on how it can digitalise services in the maritime industry and is set to receive an additional €6.5 million in funds from the EU recovery and resilience plan in order to implement, Borg said.

The EU Commission will be using this as a pilot project to see how the plan for digitizing maritime services can be implemented in other member states.