Total annual operating costs in the shipping industry fell by 1.3% in 2017, following on from a 1.1% average fall in 2016, reported accountancy and shipping consultant Moore Stephens.
For the third successive year all categories of expenditure in 2017 were down on those for the previous 12-month period, most notably for insurance costs and stores.
The overall drop in costs of 4.1% for insurance followed a 3.0% fall recorded for 2016.
The tanker index was down by 1.7% year on year while the bulker index fell by 1.9%, declines which in both cases repeated the percentage falls seen in the previous year. The container ship index was down by 1.3%, compared to a fall the previous year of 0.6%.
There was 0.1% overall average fall in 2017 crew costs, an decline on the 0.4% fall the previous year.
There was an overall fall in repairs and maintenance costs of 1.7%, compared with a reduction of 0.8% fall the previous year.