Belgian flag climbs to fourth place in European merchant fleet
The Belgian flag has climbed to fourth place in the European merchant fleet by total tonnage, and to around fifteenth globally, according to the Royal Belgian Shipowners' Association (KBRV) in its annual report published on Thursday.
Last year, 44 ships were registered under the Belgian flag, compared with an average of 12 annually in previous years. The number of ships under Belgian colours rose from around 80 in early 2025 to around 120 by the end of that year. There are now 210 ships flying the Belgian flag, placing the country fourth in Europe.
Two factors explain the rapid rise. The first is the deal involving CMB.Tech, the Antwerp-based shipping group that completed its merger with Norwegian counterpart Golden Ocean last year. The second is the abolition of the so-called withholding tax on payments relating to the use of tangible movable property. "This directly increases the attractiveness of the Belgian flag, which is reflected in the figures," the report states.
"We all know where we've come from. The Belgian fleet had been almost entirely flagged out to Luxembourg and other more exotic registers. We saw what that meant: less expertise, fewer jobs, less influence, and above all, less government revenue," chairman Marc Nuytemans said at the KBRV's annual general meeting on Thursday. "The total added value of the Belgian maritime cluster was then less than €400 million. Today, we are close to €6 billion."
PHOTO © MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP
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