Germanischer Lloyd Counts 50 Million GT in Class

Fuelled by the order boom in international shipping, the tonnage classified by Germanischer Lloyd has grown to more than 50 million gross tonnage (GT). This is a milestone in the history of the classification society, which attends to the safety of over 5,730 vessels worldwide. "We are deeply grateful to our customers at home and abroad for this growth," said Executive Board Member Rainer Schöndube. "Over the past eight years, we have been able to double the fleet in class." In the first seven months of 2005 alone, the gross tonnage rose to 4.2 million tonnes (+ 8.8 percent). With the growth in ship tonnage in the Register of Germanischer Lloyd, more workplaces can now be created for skilled technical staff. In the first half of 2005, the personnel level rose by 13 percent to 1,494 within Germany and by about 40 percent to 1,255 overseas. Germanischer Lloyd is represented worldwide with 163 stations in 77 countries. Since its founding in the year 1867, Germanischer Lloyd has experienced several phases of strong growth. When the first ship classification register was published in October 1868, it counted 272 sailing ships of wood and steel. Only five year later, the GL Register reflected 1,870 ships sailing under 19 different flags. In 1914, there were 2,922 ships with 5,503,923 gross register tonnes (GRT) in class. However, the world economic crisis and the First and Second World War all took their toll. It was only at the beginning of the sixties that the Register again listed more ships than in 1914. The expansion of the merchant fleet and the introduction of computer technology in shipbuilding led to a continuous rise in the fleet under attendance. At the 125 year jubilee of the classification society in 1992, there were 4,200 seagoing ships with 18 million GT in class. Dynamic growth, fuelled by the triumphant advance of the container ship and the international distribution of labour, resulted in a rise in the classified tonnage to the latest all-time high.