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Twelve months into her two-year tenure as the first woman president of BIMCO, the world’s largest international shipping association, Şadan Kaptanoğlu is having to restress her green priorities, something that risks being sideswiped by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the next episode of the Maritime CEO Tech Leader Series due to air on Thursday on Splash, Kaptanoğlu explains why it is so important shipping does not lose focus of its 2050 greenhouse gas commitments. “If we do not follow this green path we will create very domestic, regional, different regulations and that will be a catastrophe for shipping, so we will not lose our focus,” she says. We do not expect any V-shaped recovery, more a W-shaped one Away from the video interview, Kaptanoğlu, the managing director of Istanbul-based HI Kaptanoglu Shipping, explains how the coronavirus has shaped the latter half of her BIMCO tenure and her expectation for a very tough 12 months ahead for the shipping industry who ought to prepare more for a W-shaped recovery rather than a comparatively easier V-shaped one. “When something happens like this it can change your priorities,” Kaptanoğlu concedes. “Right now all the shipping associations - not only BIMCO - are working together closer than ever and our top priority are the seafarers to ensure they are safe, both physically and mentally, and to ensure they can have crew changes as soon as possible. It also shows all of us how this crew change system is fragile.” The plight of seafarers marooned at sea has become Kaptanoğlu’s top immediate priority. Getting the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to act fast was easy enough, she says; the harder part was taking the issue to governments around the world. “A shipowner’s responsibility is to protect sea trade and to do it efficiently and effectively so our famous global supply chains will not change and will work smoothly,” Kaptanoğlu says. On the markets, the Turkish shipowner is warning her peers to brace for a “very challenging year ahead”. “We do not expect any V-shaped recovery, more a W-shaped one,” she says going on to explain that like the virus the debilitating effects have spread from cruise to ferries to containers to dry bulk. “Eventually it will lead to all the segments. It will be very difficult times,” Kaptanoğlu warns. “The quicker shipping companies move and adapt the better, but we will see a lot of change,” she predicts, going on to say: “Lots of people say we have this great chance for change - these are very romantic ideas and I wish it was the case but what we see in front of us are trade barriers increasing, populism is increasing and everyone is going to their own corners and they are trying to roll over the globalisation, but globalisation is a good tool, ultimately it is good for everyone.” Another issue Kaptanoğlu and her association have been working hard to fix is the dire security situation in the Gulf of Guinea which has seen more than 150 seafarers taken hostage in the last 12 months. “A lot of work is being done but more needs to be done to ensure security there,” Kaptanoğlu says. Stay tuned to Splash for Thursday’s instalment of the Maritime CEO Tech Leader Series to watch the BIMCO president’s impassioned green shipping plea to fellow owners.

‘A shipowner’s responsibility is to protect sea trade’

Splash Extra settles down for a wide-ranging chat with the president of BIMCO, Şadan Kaptanoğlu

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