After a tumultuous 2020, with historic highs and lows for almost all ship types, Japan remains at the top of the world's shipowners with total assets of $115bn.

Japan's already booming fleet continued to gain value in the second half of 2020, boosted by increased revenues in the container ship market.

Of the top 10 shipowners, Japan has the largest liquefied petroleum gas fleet, valued at $5.8bn.

Its trucking fleet also tops the list with a value of $7.3 billion, almost three times the value of the entire fleet of Norway, the second-biggest owner.

The Japanese fleet is mainly owned by ocean shipping companies NYK, MOL and K Line, which compete head-on with other industry leaders in the same trading area.

Together with South Korea's fleet of car carriers, these ships account for more than 70 per cent of Asian exports to the world.

China has risen to second place in the world in terms of total ship assets, with $108bn in assets.

China's increased investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, coupled with a surge in freight rates in the second half of last year, has contributed to a surge in the value of its fleet in both markets.

Chinese energy companies are actively investing in new shipbuilding orders for large liquefied natural gas carriers and very large ethane carriers (VLECs) in the second half of 2020.

Meanwhile, the surge in container shipping rates has prompted OOCL to place a large order for the ULCV, with 12 new ships costing about $1.6 billion.

Haifeng International (SITC) has also taken advantage of the rising market by ordering 14 handy container ships, which are essential to regional trade routes.

The United States jumped to third place with $95 billion in total assets, including $63 billion in cruise assets.

This is helped by the fact that the world's biggest cruise lines -- Carnival and Royal Caribbean -- are both American.

Despite the shock to the cruise industry from the global pandemic of the new pandemic, the United States has retained its position as the world's largest ship owner.

In addition, the value of oil tankers fell in the second half of 2020 due to the long-term decline in tanker revenue, and with it the total value of the U.S. tanker fleet.

however, is the smaller of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), liquefied ethylene and the value of liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport fleet, but because of the delay of the panama canal, Asia unloading time extended, and a large number of ships stagnation in the dry dock to causes such as capacity, causes the ship spot rate soared and rising asset value, and at the end of 2020 reached their highest level in 5 years.

The United States is also known as a Ro-Ro ship owner, with $1.9 billion worth of assets in the sector, which helps it move up the ranking of the top 10.

Surprisingly, Greece dropped to fourth place.

The results were influenced by the fact that other countries' fleets included more cruise, roll-on and roll-on ships and car carriers in the statistics, as well as by the fact that Greece's total fleet assets fell by $6.5 billion from last year.

The decline in the value of the total assets of the Greek fleet has much to do with the prolonged downturn in tanker earnings in the second half of 2020.

Since Greece is the world's largest tanker owner, the overall value of the fleet has been sharply reduced.

Greek shipowners have also been active in tanker sales, selling 105 but buying only 70, reducing their assets.

Other types of assets in the Greek fleet, including container ships, gas carriers and offshore vessels, are holding relatively steady.

The total value of Singapore's fleet changed only slightly, dropping to fifth place.

New investment by the country's shipowners in container and roll-on fleets helped boost the total value of the fleet by $6bn.

In the case of container ships, the rise in freight rates and the sale price of used ships reflects greater confidence in the market, and hence higher values.

Singapore is now the world's third largest owner of Ro/Ro ships, thanks to Cobelfret.

The company's pre-eminence in the market underpinned Singapore's eventual position at the top of the shipowner's asset league table.

Germany rose to sixth place in the list of ship assets, up from eighth in 2020, thanks to the appreciation of the value of the assets of small dry bulk ships due to high freight rates.

A number of successful refinancings and restructurings across ships in previous years meant that by early 2020 a significant number of shipowners had survived the crisis.

Germany's assets in the cruise sector totalled $12.8 billion, boosting the total value of its fleet to $43 billion, up 60 percent from last year.

The UK's fleet increased its value by more than $15 billion, moving up two places to seventh place.This is mainly due to the fact that the data included in the ranking include the value of cruise ships.The UK's container fleet has been revived by a surge in Chinese exports to Europe.

The Christmas season and pre-Brexit stockpiling were key drivers of activity in the sector.

South Korea fell two places this year, but the total value of its fleet changed by just 0.2 percent.

The value of both tankers and bulk carriers owned by the country fell, but that decline was partly offset by the inclusion of car carriers in the current count.

South Korea is also one of the world's leading car seaborne exporters.

Major shipowners include Glovis, which has expanded its fleet of dedicated car and truck carriers (PCTC) in recent years, and Eokor, which is jointly 20 per cent owned by Hyundai Glovis and Kia Motors.

High volume car manufacturing and seaborne exports have made South Korea the third largest car carrier ship owner.

Norway's ranking in total ship assets dropped from fifth place in 2020 to ninth place today due to a sharp decline in the value of its offshore fleet.

The outbreak of the new crown and the resulting drop in global oil demand are responsible for Norway's sharp drop in the ranking of total assets.

The country's oil majors have aggressively cut capital spending, projects for mobile offshore drilling platforms have been terminated, suspended or delayed, and the value of offshore vessels of almost all ages has been hit.

The major mobile rig owners, including Borr Drilling, lost about $500 million in total assets.

Switzerland made it into the top 10, while Denmark dropped out of the top 10.

MSC Cruises' $18bn fleet of large and very large ships helped the country become the world's second-largest cruise ship owner and eventually propel it into the top 10.