INFLUENCE is exerted in many ways across shipping, but 15 years into our annual exercise of assessing where the power lies in the maritime sector we find the industry in a state of flux.

In important ways it always has been.

For all its cyclical uncertainty, political susceptibility and angina aggravating risk, the shipping industry remains the fundamental engine of world trade. Our globalised economy relies on it, countries are built on it and markets rise or fall in step with the patterns of trade left in its wake.

But the geopolitical headwinds are really being felt this year. Whether it is the outsized influence of a non-state actor like the Houthis exposing the vulnerability of maritime supply chains, or the pre-emptive trade lane shifts bracing for Trump 2.0, 2024 has reminded us that shipping does not get to decide the conditions in which it operates.

This, however, is more than a spot of turbulence; there are bigger forces at play.

When we started this annual list, the power of the individual was already under attack. At that point, it was a battle between several shipping models, a spectrum of management styles that spanned from complete state control at one end, through mild cronyism, to the billion-dollar owner in Hong Kong or Piraeus who sat behind a battered desk in a room more suited to an impoverished private detective than a tycoon.

Fifteen years ago, it still seemed that it would be the pure enterprising figure of the lone capitalist taking risk that would continue to define the industry.

In 2025, that figure is starting to look like a relic of the past.

This is no longer just about business models. The future of shipping does not rest on shipping-specific issues. Shipping is in flux because the pricing of carbon into global trade forces us to reassess almost every aspect of the value chain shipping sits within.

The changes ahead require collective action across regulation, policy, energy, finance, innovation and shipping is only a part of that systems change.

Next year will be pivotal in deciding how far and how fast that system changes, and consequently this year has found many of out movers and shakers in limbo, undecided on everything from future fuels to business models.

While this year’s list is still replete with the bold moves, power plays and investments you would expect from a list of the most important industry players, for now at least, the power of the individual is waning.

Shipping, and the balance of power and influence within it, is about to fundamentally change.

Fifteen years from now, the Lloyd’s List Top 100 is likely to look very different.

Richard Meade
Editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List

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