During the course of the 2007/2008 policy year, owned tonnage increased by approximately 5 million gt with a net growth in the number of entered ships of approximately 80. The new tonnage came predominantly from existing Members, the majority being newbuildings.

The number of Members entered in the Association remained stable during the year with seven new Members joining and five withdrawing. The five Members who withdrew during the year sold their entire shipping interests.

The influx of newbuildings has helped to maintain the favourable age profile of the Association's entered tonnage with 60% having been built within the last 10 years (compared to 49% for the world fleet).

The composition of the Association's entered tonnage by type of vessel has changed slightly over the year,with crude oil tankers now representing 27% of the entered tonnage compared to 30% at this time last year. The percentage of bulk carriers entered has risen from 28% to 29%.

The geographical spread of the Association's business has changed a little over the year. The continued expansion of many of the Asian fleets has resulted in the percentage of tonnage entered from that region increasing from 48% to 50%. Two of the Members who have left the Association were based in the US and as a result the percentage of entries from the Americas has dropped from 9% to 8%.

The renewal at 20 February 2008 witnessed a reduction in the Association's entered tonnage. This reduction was broadly equivalent to the growth in the Association's owned tonnage during the 2007/2008 policy year. The Association's owned entered tonnage has therefore remained at 88million gt. The loss of three time chartered entries at renewal resulted in the Association's chartered tonnage reducing to approximately 39 million gt.