Nyttan med svenskflaggade fartyg och betydelsen av en ökad inflaggning för Sverige

Shipping transport plays a crucial role in supporting the domestic and global trade and economic growth by handling nearly 90% of Sweden’s import and export, transporting millions of passengers. The Swedish shipping industry provides employment directly to more than thirty thousand people and in addition, significantly contributes to the total GDP of Sweden by generating over 85 billion SEK annually (NRIA Shipping 2021). Over the past few decades despite shipping’s substantial importance for Swedish economy, Swedish ship-owners have largely adopted a “flagging out” model by placing vessels under alternative flags, which provides cost savings by reducing tax payments as well as more flexible standards related to ship operations. Existing literature and industry reports suggest that a reduced national flagged fleet has disturbing long-term implications for Sweden, and there is a need to increase the size of Swedish-flagged fleet. However, there is a lack of clear evidence regarding the benefits and importance of an increased national fleet for Sweden. Hence, relying on the existing literature and interviews with experts from Swedish Maritime and Transport Agencies, Swedish Shipowners’ Association, ship-owners, and Swedish Navy this feasibility study aims to shed light on the benefits of Swedish-flagged ships and how increased flagging would affect Sweden as a nation and society from a broad perspective. The findings of this study show that the existence of a strong Swedish shipping sector is important from several perspectives. In a complex world with humanitarian crises, natural disasters, piracy, supply chain disruptions and wars, Sweden has an obligation to protect and assist both its own citizens, industries, and economy as well as its international partners all over the globe within its limited means. In addition, the Swedish fleet provides an infrastructure link between Sweden and the rest of the world, promotes maritime cluster formation in the country, boosts tax revenues and GDP, increases employment opportunities, and contributes to Swedish industry’s globalized supply chains. Moreover, a competitive and sustainable Swedish fleet can assist Sweden in achieving national and global sustainable development goals (SDG). The SDGs are a global call for action to protect the planet, ensure better lives for all people and ascertain economic growth, peace, and prosperity. Similarly, one of the main goals set by the government of Sweden is to become world’s first fossil free welfare nation. A sustainable Swedish-flagged fleet is an important enabler to achieve the government’s business policy goal of strengthening Swedish competitiveness and creating conditions for more jobs and growing Swedish companies and economy. For Sweden to achieve an efficient and climate-smart transport system, all modes of transport need to be used in the best way. Sweden has also stated a clear goal in the national freight transport strategy to move goods from road transport to rail and sea. Shipping is an energy efficient transport mode. A shift from road haulage to shipping can relieve the heavily loaded road infrastructure to a greater extent and can thus reduce congestion, traffic accidents, longer wait times, noise, and emissions. A modal shift to shipping as a result can support the national and European policy of moving goods from road to sea. A positive outcome of using more shipping compared to trucking is that society does not have to spend as many resources on construction and maintenance of the road infrastructure. The findings of this study indicate that the Swedish government can play an important role to attract more vessels to use Swedish flag by providing a long term and consistent business conditions for the maritime industry. In our research Tax “Stämpelskatt” appears to be one of the key factors which makes Swedish flag unattractive for ship-owners who want to register their vessels in Sweden. Several scientific articles, reports and examples from other EU member states emphasize that tax exemptions and state subsidies for maritime transport are pivotal to form maritime clusters that in turn outweigh the reduction in tax revenues from shipping following tax relaxation, offering various socio-economic benefits in form of more jobs and a strong economic growth. Among other measures, the establishment of second ship registers is one of the most effective ways to increase the Swedish-flagged fleet, as shown by the success of Norwegian and Danish international ship registers. The Swedish state must understand that a Swedish-flagged fleet is a market issue and that the terms and conditions offered by the state both affect and determine who can do business in the market