Indonesia tops the global ranking with over 11,000 merchant ships — a reflection of its massive archipelago, large domestic economy, and laws requiring ships in its waters to fly the Indonesian flag.
Panama is the world’s 3rd largest ship registry — thanks to its open ‘flag of convenience’ system, which allows global shipowners to register their vessels under Panama’s flag.

Ranked: The World’s Largest Merchant Ship Fleets by Country

I love visual capitalist. Surprising data: Japan as #4 and Liberia (what?). Most of the rest of the composition makes sense to me.