Seatrade Asia Week on the ground at the region's biggest events

Singapore: The conference season in shipping is without a doubt fully in swing. The last seven days have seen three major events in Mumbai, Singapore and Beijing, with the Indian Shipping Summit, Marine Money Asia Week and Shipping China respectively.

With an opportunity to hear views from top players in three key Asian markets Seatrade Asia Week had journalists in attendence at all three events - the only international shipping publication to do so.

The views expressed on a cross section of markets, including shipbuilding, dry bulk, offshore, tankers and container shipping are all covered in this issue. While certainly there are some negatives to be aware of, particularly in the case of newbuildings, these variety of market views also point to many opportunities.

We also took the opportunity to examine developments in the two biggest emerging markets in the world: China and India. This includes China's rapid rise as major force in ship financing and the debate going on in India between private industry and government as to how best develop its maritime and shipping industry.

In China, Lloyd's Register chief Richard Sadler made a timely call for this giant nation with such an influence on shipping markets to play a more proactive role on the international stage of maritime affairs.

One Asian nation that certainly has become much more active on international maritime stage is Singapore. Thursday night saw a phenomenal 2,000 industry executives turn out at Marina Bay Sands to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Singapore Shipping Association. Seatrade was the only major international shipping publisher present at what had to be one of the biggest events on the Asian maritime calender.

All of these events underscore a simple fact about the shipping industry - it is a people business. Networking and face-to-face to communication are still core to what makes the business of shipping tick, and that is why Seatrade Asia Week will be present at as many major events in the industry as it can be. So we will see you at TPM Asia, World Shipping (China) Summit, and Sibcon 2010. Seatrade Asia Week comes out 50 times a year and is priced at just $300 a year. To subscribe click here. [01/10/10]

Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.