Shanghai: The four-day Marintec China 2009 event closed its doors today in upbeat mood after having recorded what is expected to be another record-breaking attendance at the New International Expo Centre. Official figures have yet to be released but are expected to exceed the previous 2007 show's tally of 35,309 visitors ( 4,085 international) from 87 countries and 1,158 exhibiting companies (821 international) from 30 countries covering 36,500 square metres.
The Senior Maritime Forum conference, co-organised by UBM/Seatrade and Shanghai SNAME, also clocked up a full house of delegates who thronged to the nearby Sofitel JinJinang Pudong Hotel. An impressive line-up of speakers included vice minister of transport Xu Zuyuan and Capt Wei Jiafu, chairman of China Shipowners' Association (CSA) and president of Cosco. Amongst international speakers were Spyros Polemis, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping; Dr Hermann Klein, chairman of the International Association of Classification Societies and executive board member of Germanischer Lloyd; Dr Peter Swift, managing director of Intertanko, and Jesper Kjaedegaard, president of the UK Chamber of Shipping.
Polemis used his speech to address pressing environmental issues on the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. He said the ICS - among whose members he hoped to count CSA "in the not too distant future" - felt it vital that the matter of CO2 emissions from shipping be regulated by the IMO and that any measures adopted for shipping are applied "on a global and uniform basis - including Kyoto Protocol 'non-Annex I' countries, such as China, with which about 65% of the world fleet is registered."
The state of Chinese shipbuilding - and hence the mood of many exhibiting supplier companies - was perhaps best gauged by remarks from Bernard Anne, managing director of the Marine division of Bureau Veritas. Speaking exclusively to Seatrade he said: 'The Chienese market is still good for 2009 and 2010 but after that we'll have to wait and see. We have 430 vessels delivering under BV class in China this year and more than 1,000 ships still on order after that in Chinese yards, delivering at a rate of more than one a day.'
As regards emerging vessel types being built by Chinese yards, Anne said that BV was assisting China in its move into building Offshore vessels, and added that the classification society also had more than 200 chemical carriers under construction in China. [04/12/09]
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