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Live from Posidonia

Posidonia 2022 in quotes

Posidonia Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mistotakis, flanked by Theodore Vokos, Managing Director of Posidonia Exhibitions (left) and Melina Travlos, president of the Union of Greek Shipowners and Adina Ioana Vălean, EU Commissioner for Transport
Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mistotakis, flanked by Theodore Vokos, Managing Director of Posidonia Exhibitions (left) and Melina Travlos, president of the Union of Greek Shipowners and Adina Ioana Vălean, EU Commissioner for Transport, launches Posidonia 2022.
Posidonia 2022 saw the industry connecting in person in way it has sorely missed during in the pandemic.

It has been a week not only of packed exhibition halls, parties, and traffic jams, but also some serious content and statements from leading industry figures and politicians. Seatrade Maritime News takes you through some the most notable comments from the week which link to the full stories.

At the opening of Posidonia 2022 Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for shipping to be treated on an equal footing as measures are sought to decarbonise the industry. “In the 19th century the Greek shipowners turned from sail to steam, and now we must do the reverse – returning to a shipping that is neutral from an energy point of view. We have to intensify research, to develop new technologies and fuels, [but] second, it is imperative that we revise EU rules to allow competition across transport modes to happen on an equal basis, so that he who pollutes will be paying.”

Speaking with shipowner Harry Vafias told Seatrade Maritime News it was the best shipping markets the industry had seen in 15 years. "If you exclude VLCCs, which are currently loss making and are the exception, everything else containers, LNG, LPG, crude oil and product tankers are all doing very, very well and prices for those ships are going up on a weekly basis.”

Addressing the Global Maritime Club Summit John Platsidakis, Honorary Chairman, Intercargo had harsh words for failure of many governments to support the industry and its seafarers during the pandemic. I think it has been a success story of the shipping industry and a big failure of the societies, the governments, and the regulators.”

Leading Greek shipowners railed against Russian sanctions at a Capital Link Event.  Dynacom / Dynagas founder George Procopiou stated: “Sanctions have never worked.”

In an interview ClassNK President and CEO Hiroaki Sakashita called for international policies to promote green fuels development. “International, mandatory, policy measures, that is a kind of carbon pricing, are essential to provide the investment for the technology or the infrastructure, and that will make it economically viable for investment – without that no-one can proceed.”

Launching ABS’ latest Low Carbon Shipping Outlook, Georgios Plevrakis, ABS Vice President, Global Sustainability, said they were exploring new dimensions in the energy transition. This is why exploring the two critical energy transition value chains of hydrogen and carbon is at the heart of this latest research from ABS.”

Caroline Yang, Chief Executive of Hong Lam Marine and President of the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), speaking in the Global Maritime Club Summit session on technology said start-ups need to be encouraged and also solve industry pain points. “The solutions that they come up with they have to work very closely with industry, the problem statements must come from the industry, I think that is important.”

Dr. Irbahim Al Nadhairi, Chief Executive Officer, Shipping & Drydock for Asyad Group, said in an interview that Middle East shipyards had seen a surge in business due to Chinese Covid restrictions. "So, we could see there was a big hike in the number of ships, not only for Asyad Dry Dock, but the entire region as well.”