IMO Secretary-General William O’Neil has highlighted the shipping industry’s continued success in achieving improvements to its safety and environmental record as he addressed delegates at the opening of the 77th session of the Organization’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) in London today. Mr O’Neil spoke of shipping as “an industry to be proud of”, and added that no opportunity to emphasize this should be missed. Mr O’Neil drew delegates’ attention to statistics for the period, 1991 to 2001, recently issued by the Lloyd’s Underwriters Marine Intelligence Unit, which show a very clear and sustained decline in the number of ships over 500 gross tons lost each year, from over 180 units in 1991 to less than 80 units just ten years later.