Spyros Polemis News

The piracy issue, reducing shipboard emissions, and tackling the worsening crisis of crew competency and complacency onboard today’s ships will be just some of the hard hitting subjects covered at the ICS/ISF International Shipping Conference to be held at IET London, 2 Savoy Place, London from September 14th to 15th. Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, the newly-appointed Operation Commander at EUNAVFOR, will be a guest speaker at the conference and will give his views on tackling the scourge of piracy from a military perspective. He will be joined on the first day’s piracy session by Stephen Askins, Partner at Ince & Co, who will discuss the intricate and often tricky issue of ransom negotiations. Reducing shipboard emissions is one of the shipping industry’s hot topics.

Last month MR’s Henrik Segercrantz traveled to Hamburg for an exclusive preview of the SMM 2010 exhibition. The SMM international trade fair for shipbuilding, machinery and marine technology will take place in Hamburg, Germany, on 7-10 September. This year much focus will be on environment-friendly technologies and products. The supporting program for SMM 2010 will for the first time this year include the Global Maritime Environmental Congress (gmec), and the Offshore Dialogue, which will also look into maritime technologies for offshore mining and wind farms.

For two days, industry experts from all over the world will attend the Global Maritime Environmental Congress (GMEC) in Hamburg to discuss developments, to present results, and to set a new course for sustainable green shipping. Patronage for this event, which is to be held regularly in future, has been accepted by Chancellor Angela Merkel. From 7 to 8 September 2010, more than 700 leading representatives from industry, government, academia, navies, tourism and environmental protection will meet in Hamburg to discuss specific solutions for environment-friendly, sustainable shipping. The three Chairmen of the event are Micky Arison, Corrado Antonini and Spyros Polemis.

The fourth "Parallel Event" to celebrate World Maritime Day formally and officially outside of the International Maritime Organization's London base was held in Greece on 19 and 20 September, hosted by the Government of the Hellenic Republic. On 19 September, Athens was the location for a seminar and panel discussion on the theme of IMO: 60 years in the service of shipping, in which leading figures from the maritime community took the opportunity to outline, from their perspective, their views on the past, present and future of IMO and the shipping industry. On 20 September, the International Memorial to the Wife of the Seafarer was unveiled in the town of Galaxidi, by the Secretary-General of IMO, Mr. Efthimios E.

INTERTANKO’s Hellenic Forum last week elected its new Chairman and governing team. Emmanuel Vordonis of Thenamaris Ships Management will be the next Chairman, succeeding Ceres Hellenic’s Nicholas G. Fistes who held the position for three years, and is the Hellenic Forum’s third Chairman. Nick Fistes will remain as a Vice Chairman alongside Costis Kertsikoff of Eletson Corporation and Spyros Polemis of Seacrest Shipping. They will work together with the Steering Committee and the members of the Forum to stimulate constructive thinking and generate new ideas out of the hands-on international experience of the Greek shipping community.