GL’s fleet in service passed the historic mark of 100 million GT. Over 7,200 vessels are under the regular technical supervision of GL. The fleet doubled within the past six years.
The ship which saw GL break the 100 million mark was shipping company Hamburg Süd's 85,676 GT "Santa Rosa". The 300-meter-long container ship, built by South Korean shipyard Daewoo, has a capacity of 7,100 standard containers (TEU) and fulfils the requirements of the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) the soon to be mandatory energy efficiency measure.
The serving GL fleet is made up of 68 per cent container ships, ten per cent multi-purpose vessels, nine per cent bulk carriers and seven per cent tankers. GL Class ships sail under 114 different flags, the most prevalent being those of the Administrations of Antigua and Barbuda, Germany, Liberia, Singapore, Indonesia and Cyprus.
Since its founding in the year 1867, Germanischer Lloyd has experienced several phases of strong growth. When the first ship classification register was published in October 1868, it counted 272 sailing ships of wood and one of steel.
Only five years later, the GL Register reflected 1,870 ships sailing under 19 different flags. In 1914, there were 2,922 ships with 5,503,923 gross register tonnes (GRT) in class. However, the world economic crisis and the First and Second World War took their toll. It was only at the beginning of the sixties that the Register again listed more ships than in 1914. The expansion of the merchant fleet and the introduction of computer technology in shipbuilding led to a continuous rise in the fleet under attendance.
At the 125 year jubilee of the classification society in 1992, there were 4,200 seagoing ships with 18 million GT in class. In September 2007, GL had passed the 70 million GT mark.