New realities have emerged in global shipping, amid armed conflicts and sanctions that have ultimately led to the development of a massive «shadow» fleet.
The world's leading maritime powers are now publicly sounding the alarm, warning that «parallel systems» are forming in shipping, with vessels operating outside traditional safety, insurance, and transparency frameworks. The Consultative Shipping Group, in which Greece also participates, warns that these developments are no longer merely temporary crises, but an indication of a deeper structural shift in how global trade operates.
80% of global trade moves by sea
Global maritime authorities warned that the emergence of «parallel systems» threatens to create a two-tier shipping system internationally, undermining trust and safety at sea.
In a joint statement issued today, Tuesday (September 8, 2026), the Consultative Shipping Group (CSG), an informal cooperation mechanism among the maritime authorities of 18 countries from around the world, noted that more than 80% of global trade is transported by sea. «Without maritime trade, supply chains would fragment and the global economy as we know it would come to a sudden halt», the statement reads. It warned that maritime supply chains have faced repeated disruptions, which «increase uncertainty and add friction to the efficiency of global supply chains», pointing to events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the drought in the Panama Canal, and the US-Iran war.
The conflict in the Middle East has created a major bottleneck in global shipping this year, due to blockades and fighting in and around the critically important Strait of Hormuz, a waterway south of Iran. Prices of oil and other commodities, such as fertilizers, have skyrocketed as a result.
The CSG warned on Tuesday that «discriminatory trade measures» amplify the effects of developments affecting navigation. «Global shipping works best when rules are clear and consistent across the world», the same statement reads. «Uncertainty regarding future access to ports or routes can affect long-term commercial planning. When countries begin to pursue diverging approaches, regional initiatives or stagnant multilateral processes weaken the coherence of the system».
«The fragmentation of rules leads directly to market fragmentation and ultimately to higher costs for businesses and consumers», it warned.
Unprecedented intervention
The announcement marks the first public intervention by the CSG since its founding more than 60 years ago. Members of the group include Greece, Singapore, Denmark, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and South Korea. The same announcement emphasizes that geopolitical pressures on shipping «are not episodic shocks», but «signs of a structural shift in the operating environment of global trade».
«Shipping routes are increasingly turning into tools of pressure and risk», they stated. «Sovereignty, resilience, and prosperity depend on partnerships and practical cooperation and coordination to maintain an open global trading system».
The «shadow» fleet
At the same time, members of the CSG warned that a growing number of ships are now conducting activities that circumvent sanctions, while an «unregulated shadow fleet... of hundreds of ships operating outside standard insurance, safety, and transparency frameworks» further fragments global supply chains. «This creates parallel systems within global shipping, increases risk, and circumvents environmental and safety standards, undermining trust and predictability in maritime markets», the CSG stated. «The result is a two-tier system, one governed by rules and the other by opacity, ultimately weakening both».
The group called on maritime states to «actively uphold and maintain the core principles governing shipping», arguing that existing international rules must be applied across all jurisdictions, alongside political support «to develop and sustain common standards».
«Robust international cooperation is not a limitation on sovereignty. It is a prerequisite for effective governance in an interconnected world», the CSG stated. «Allowing fragmentation to deepen undermines the rules-based global maritime framework and increases the risk of disruptions at critical maritime chokepoints», it added. «As the closure of the Strait of Hormuz demonstrates: when maritime supply chains fragment, the global economy fragments with them».
Growing concerns for shipping
Brian Wessel, director general of the Danish Maritime Authority, which chairs the CSG, told the Financial Times that maritime states took the step of issuing this rare public statement due to growing concerns over the fragmentation of the maritime sector and the undermining of standards set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN agency that regulates the shipping industry.
«For decades, we built global trade on the assumption that ships could move freely across borders. That assumption is now under pressure», he said, adding that «the level playing field globally and the global regulations we have crafted over many years at the IMO were taken for granted».
The members of the Consultative Shipping Group represent more than one fifth of global trade in terms of tonnage.
Scenarios for a transit fee in Hormuz
On Monday, Tehran reported that it is close to an agreement with Oman on managing navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one fifth of the world's oil and natural gas previously passed. It is unclear whether a transit fee will be imposed.
Shipowners and maritime organizations have warned that imposing a fee would set a dangerous precedent, which could prompt other countries bordering critical maritime corridors to adopt the same practice.
At the same time, sanctions by the US, the EU, and the United Kingdom against Russia and Iran have fueled the rapid growth of a «shadow» tanker fleet, which now numbers more than 1,500 vessels, according to TankerTrackers.com, representing nearly one fifth of the global tanker fleet.
Almost all of these vessels lack traditional insurance policies.
In the summer, the Caroline Bezengi, a «shadow» fleet vessel carrying approximately 800,000 barrels of Russian oil, struck a mine off the coast of Oman without traditional protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance, potentially leaving the government of Oman facing clean-up costs amounting to millions of dollars.
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