Some 440 delegates representing 218 companies from 14 countries spent over eight hours, November 11, debating at the Greener Shipping Summit, held at the Athens Ledra Marriott Hotel, with the focus on ships of the future.

Organised by Newsfront / Naftiliaki in conjunction with, and under the auspices of, Greek shipping’s technical body MARTECMA, through interaction between industry leaders, classification societies and panels comprising the manufacturers of environmental friendly ship’s equipment and service providers, delegates discussed the innovations which will play a role in the industry in the future as well as how best, and what is available to enable ship operators to meet the regulatory requirements of the present. Chaired by, Leonidas Polemis, ceo of Remi Maritime, phrases like “the need for a holistic approach” to finding the right solution; ..”LNG is not an easy solution” …”LNG as a fuel is a technical challenge, especially for a retrofit” … “no way round the regulations for the ship operator” … “payback time varies” …”the bottom line, everything has a cost” …”training is the key for both seagoing and ashore staff” … “systems have been install, but are not being used” … “market price for a system, it is hard to say”… “fail to plan is a plan to fail”.
During the day some 25 presentations were made, and a full report of the Greener Shipping Summit 2014 will be presented in Naftiliaki’s Annual Index to Greek Shipping, published end-December.