SOVIET SHIPPING STRENGTH AND ITS EMPLOYMENT 
(By William Carr) 
SUMMARY 
The Soviet merchant fleet achieved its most spectacular growth 
from 1962 to 1966. This expansion, stimulated by increases in 
seaborne trade at annual rates averaging more than 30 percent for 
3 years in a row, raised the fleet’s world standing from 12th largest 
in 1962 to 7th largest in 1964. Accelerated deliveries to other coun- 
tries’ fleets dropped the Soviet fleet’s standing from 7th largest in 
1973 to 10th largest in 1974. The fleet’s capacity at the end of 
1974 was 14.2 million deadweight tons (dwt), 3 percent of the world 
total and less than one-fourth that of the world-leading Japanese fleet. 
Although 65 percent of Soviet merchant tonnage is less than 10 
years old, a number of long-standing qualitative deficiencies place 
the Soviet fleet behind Western fleets in maritime technology. Because 
of draft limitations in U.S.S.R. ports, the average size of Soviet 
merchant ships is less than half the world average. Moreover, the 
Soviets have just begun to acquire tankers and bulk carriers larger 
than 50,000 dwt, small by Western standards. At a time when the 
movement of general cargo in scheduled liner service on major routes 
like the North Atlantic and the North Pacific is dominated by con- 
tainerships, roll-on/roll-off vessels, and other craft that carry cargo 
in modular units to minimize time in port, the U.S.S.R. still relies 
heavily on conventional general-purpose dry cargo ships on which 
general cargo is loaded piece by piece. Although the new Five Year 
Plan addresses these deficiencies, the Soviet fleet still has a large 
qualitative gap to close in catching up with Western maritime powers 
in the liner field. 
THE EMERGENCE OF THE U.S.S.R. AS A SHIPPING POWER 
The Soviet Union emerged as a world shipping power in the 
early 1960’s. An intensive program of ship acquisitions—which peaked 
in 1964 when 1.3 million dwt were acquired—caused fleet capacity 
to more than double from 4.2 million dwt at the end of 1961 to 
8.9 million dwt at the end of 1966 (see table 1). In an even shorter 
period—1962 to 1964—the addition of nearly 3 million dwt raised 
the world standing of the Soviet merchant fleet from 12th to 7th 
largest. This rank held until 1974. 
Unprecedented growth in Soviet seaborne foreign trade during 
1959-61 was the chief cause of the accelerated expansion of the 
Soviet fleet. Increases in oil exports—which represent about half of 
total trade—caused trade to expand at rates greater than 28 percent 
a year for 3 years in a row during this period (see table 2). With 
fleet growth lagging behind trade growth, the share of total Soviet 
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