Greater ChinaMaritime CEO

Global Maritime Forum: Defining moment for shipping

Shipping has not faced such upheaval since the start of containerisation, argues Peter Stokes, the chairman of the Global Maritime Forum, in an exclusive interview with Maritime CEO today.

Stokes, who also heads up shipping at investment bank Lazard, is in Hong Kong for the two-day forum, the redux version of the Danish Maritime Forum, which ran for three years in Copenhagen from 2015. The meet-up, by-invitation only and featuring 200 of the best known names in shipping, aims to tackle the industry’s long term headaches via multi-stakeholder interaction and collaboration.

“I believe that this is a defining moment for the maritime industry,” Stokes says. “It seems to me that we are facing if not an unprecedented era, then certainly one of very extreme change, upheaval and uncertainty. Probably the last similar time was the advent of containerisation.”

Stokes lists emerging digital technologies, new environmental demands and erosion of the global order as having a profound impact on the industry in the coming decade.

“Many of the issues that the maritime industry is facing will most likely have both immense positive impacts and bring unwelcome disruption,” Stokes believes.

The Lazard executive calls for public and private collaboration to provide new perspectives from inside and outside the industry to better understand the long-term forces shaping the industry’s decision-making.

The Global Maritime Forum closes tomorrow at which point Maritime CEO understands Singapore will be unveiled as next year’s hosts of the summit.

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