The Growth of UK’s Maritime Industry
Creating A Strong UK Maritime Industry
The UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) is investing £448mn over five years in research and development to accelerate the development and deployment of clean maritime technologies. Alongside UK SHORE, the government launched a series of Freeports; areas designated to boost investment into regions and grow innovation. The UK is today a globally competitive market to develop innovative maritime solutions and investment ready.
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The Growth Of Regional Innovation Clusters
Analysis of the UK maritime supply chain highlights a broad and diverse ecosystem of organisations supporting shipping, ports, technology development and professional services.
The regions with the highest number of maritime supply chain organisations are:
- South East England – 85 organisations (25.6%)
- London – 59 organisations (17.8%)
- South West England – 44 organisations (13.3%)
- Scotland – 28 organisations (8.4%)
- North West England – 25 organisations (7.5%)
These figures highlight the concentration of maritime activity across southern England and Scotland, reflecting the presence of major ports, maritime services and research institutions.
The analysis also highlights strong geographic clustering of maritime activity when considering both supply chain organisations and ports.
The regions with the highest numbers of ports and harbours are:
- Scotland – 83 ports and harbours (34.9%)
- South West England – 36 (15.1%)
- South East England – 26 (10.9%)
When maritime supply chain organisations and port infrastructure are considered together, three regional clusters emerge as the most significant centres of maritime activity in the UK:
- South East England – 111 maritime entities (19.5%)
- Scotland – 111 maritime entities (19.5%)
- South West England – 80 maritime entities (14.0%)
Together, these regions account for over half of the maritime entities identified in the analysis, highlighting their importance as key hubs for maritime industry, infrastructure and innovation.
Main Technologies and Services Supporting A UK Maritime Industry
The UK Shipping Office for Reduction of Emissions (UK SHORE) investment has been a critical catalyst to building consortia of disparate capability delivered through the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC), Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure (ZEVI) and Green Shipping Corridors.
The most frequent capabilities and services provided are:
- Decarbonisation Technology – 133 organisations (39.1%)
- Manufacturing – 97 organisations (28.5%)
- Professional services – 94 organisations (27.6%)
- Logistics Supply Chain – 81 organisations (23.8%)
- Energy and fuel solutions – 78 organisations (22.9%)
The UK SHORE investment is also a critical to facilitating industry and academic collaboration, enabling the earliest of ideas to translate into commercial reality. The analysis draws out the breadth of organisation types. The UK maritime supply chain is primarily industry-led but supported by a strong research and academic base.
The most common types of organisations identified are:
- Industry organisations – 212 (62.4%)
- Universities – 39 (11.5%)
- Research centres – 33 (9.7%)
- Non-governmental organisations – 18 (5.3%)
- Government bodies – 8 (2.4%)
Next Steps and Engagement
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PROGRAMME
This analysis is part of UK SHORE
Harnessing the UK’s research and innovation excellence to support and reduce the UK maritime industry’s carbon emissions, through a system-wide approach to develop and implement clean maritime solutions.