With the aim to provide assistance and information to its members carrying out their business better, Intercargo held the association's meeting in Athens four years after the last event that took place in Greece. The technical and executive committees of Intercargo discussed the latest developments on the decarbonization, safety and quality of bulk carriers. The full and associate members gathered at the Divani Hotel in Vouliagmeni, Athens for three days in an attempt to share their experience and align their efforts towards the future changes in shipping.
In view of Intercargo semi-annual event the association held its AGM meeting and a dinner reception with exceptional guests.
In the context of this unique event the president of Intercargo Mr. Dimitrios Fafalios and the management committee Dr Kostas Gkonis, Tom Keenan, Spyros Tarassis, Capt Uttam Upmaritime Jaiswal Capt Jay Pillai and Dimitris Monioudis gave a press conference on the latest challenges in shipping.
Mr. Dimitrios Fafalios, Chairman of Intercargo, mentioned that Intercargo has 159 full & 92 associate members. The Greek shipping companies are a significant part of Intercargo’s membership.
The 1st topic that was discussed was the decarbonisation path and the practical implementation of IMO’s environmental targets.
Intercargo advices its members to monitor the efficiency of their fleet on a daily basis adopting saving systems and other special equipment. Regarding EU ETS puts a lot of bureaucracy especially in small and medium shipowners.
Mr. Fafalios said: “Aside of decarbonisation we are not taking our eye from safety and quality. All shipping stakeholders, shipyards, class societies, flag states etc have tried to solve the problem of loss bulk carriers taking timely and precisely actions to inform the industry regarding safety.
IACS took the initiative to maintain good records, work on crew safety and management of dry bulk carriers introducing common structural rules.
Rightship formed a self-assessment organization for the safety of bulk carriers in co-operation with Intercargo totally independent which has a wider view on decarbonisation, safety and quality.
The members of the management committee referred to Intercargo’s actions during covid-19 promoting seafarers as key workers for the international trade.
It is important to understand that without seafarers the industry cannot operate however in some occasions seafarers are treated like criminals and this is not right and fair.
We cannot attract young people in the industry if the port and security authorities do not treat them fairly. In addition to these vessels must be operated by qualified seafarers. It was also mentioned that dry cargo shipping carries 90% of goods so it is crucial for the world economy. Shipping always adopts the new technology to deal with the difficult world and local regulations. However, shipping has proved adaptive and moreover has retrofitted all necessary measures to achieve the targets of the energy transition.
In this framework Intercargo urges to develop infrastructure onboard and ashore for the adoption of alternative fuels following unanimous not local rules.
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