Accelerating Innovation for Greener and Cleaner Shipping

As global trade rebounds after the Covid-19 induced recession, shipping markets are on a roll. Container and dry bulk freight rates have hit decade highs, ship values are climbing, and newbuilding orders are flooding in once more.

Always-well-attended and influential as in-person conference in Tokyo, the 2021 edition of the TradeWinds Shipowners Forum Japan is being organised as digital event on 18 November.

Japanese shipping industry has had a significant influence on the country’s history and economic development. But the industry is undergoing huge transition – shipping companies are becoming logistics groups, promoting innovations and technological drive more than ever before, and becoming more environmentally responsible. Established shipping companies now have to reinvent themselves to remain competitive since new market opportunities and new technologies are making transformation inevitable. The entire competitive landscape is up for review, with the consolidations, if vessels-as-a-service or vessel-sharing will become the new norm in the shipping industry. At this year’s edition of Shipowners Forum Japan on 18 November, we will ask some leading Japanese shipping professionals how they are responding to the ongoing industry’s challenges and will explore the opportunities in the face of major changes in regulation and compliances, shifting trade patterns and new technologies.

Japan’s shipbuilders had once controlled 53% of the global market at their peak in mid Eighties. But that figure has since dropped to less than 10% with the rise of Chinese and South Korean competition. The move to clean energy is being seen as part of a technology drive by Japanese shipyards to win back market share from close rivals South Korea and China. We will explore how the Japanese shipbuilding sector is making a comeback and being future-ready with the latest green ship wave?

TradeWinds’ Editor-in-Chief Julian Bray will lead an interactive discussion with top industry leaders on how they are responding to the demands for increases in efficiency, safety and sustainability whilst staying competitive and relevant.

This digital forum is comprised of two one-hour sessions:

 Panel Discussion One: Outlook and future of Japanese shipping - efficiency, safety, and sustainability agenda
Panel Discussion Two: Innovation & technology drive in the Japanese yards for green shipping ambition