Shifting Patterns of Global Shipping Influence: An Empirical Analysis Based on Lloyd’s List One Hundred People

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-825-2_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Global shipping influence; Lloyd’s List One Hundred People; Maritime power; Decarbonisation; Geopolitics; Supply chain resilience

Abstract

This paper examines the changing pattern of global shipping influence through a longitudinal reading of Lloyd’s List One Hundred People from 2011 to 2025. Rather than treating the list as a simple ranking of personalities, the paper uses it as a yearly observation window into the actors, institutions, sectors, and issues that shape maritime power. A mixed-method framework is developed, combining structured coding, periodized thematic text mining, and rank-sensitive interpretation. The results show that the traditional shipowner remains a central carrier of influence, but the meaning of influence has been transformed. From the early post-crisis years, when freight control, cash flow, fleet timing, and state backing dominated, the list gradually moved toward a more complex structure shaped by consolidation, regulation, decarbonisation, supply-chain resilience, digitalisation, and geopolitics. Text mining of the annual reports indicates a more than fourfold rise in energy-transition terminology between 2011-2015 and 2021-2025, while regulation, technology, and geopolitical-security terms also strengthened. The 2025 list further shows a sectoral structure in which shipowners account for 44% of entries, while regulation, finance, cargo owners, technology, ports, and other institutional actors jointly define the operating environment. The paper argues that global shipping influence is shifting from asset-centred market power toward networked, rule-based, capital-sensitive, and geopolitically constrained influence.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhibin Yang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/10
TI  - Shifting Patterns of Global Shipping Influence: An Empirical Analysis Based on Lloyd’s List One Hundred People
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Public Service, Economic Management and Sustainable Development (PESD 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 44
EP  - 58
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-825-2_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-825-2_5
ID  - Yang2026
ER  -