Category Archives: News

2023 Young Agent or Broker Award Winner Announced

Thiago Santos, Corporate Strategy Director at Unimar Shipping Agency in Brazil, is the winner of the 2023 Award. Mr. Santos entered a paper entitled: “ESG in the Shipping Industry: Impacts and Opportunities for Ship Agents”. He is the third winner of the award from Brazil, following the inaugural winner, Mr. Renan Queiroz, in 2015 and 2022 winner Nicolas de Souza.

Further details can be found here.

Joint Letter to UN Secretary General On Seafarers Trapped in Ukraine Conflict

FONASBA has today joined with over 30 other international maritime organisations and shipowner associations in sending a joint letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, His Excellency António Guterres, calling on the UN to intervene in efforts to evacuate more than 300 seafarers still trapped on vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Many of those seafarers have been trapped since the beginning of the conflict and the Secretary General has been asked to his influence, and that of the UN, to press for their release.

The joint letter was coordinated by the International Chamber of Shipping and is supported by FONASBA Club members BIMCO, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO, amongst others. The letter can be downloaded here.

2022 Young Ship Agent or Broker Award Winner Announced

FONASBA is pleased to announce that Nicolas Henriques, a ship agent with Wilhelmsens in Santos Brazil, is the winner of the 2022 Young Ship Agent or Broker award. The press release issued today  and a copy of Nicolas’ paper can be found can be found below.

As always, FONASBA is grateful to BIMCO and ITIC for their continued support for the Award.

PRESS RELEASE – YOUNG AGENT AWARD WINNER 2022

Nicolas Henriques: “A Technical Analaysis of the Key Element Behind Ship Operations: Husbandry Services, Under the Remote Centralisation Scope”

FONASBA Launches Infectious Diseases Protocols

FONASBA has formally published “Keeping Agents Safe On Board”, its Infectious Diseases Protocols that guide ship agents in the continued provision of services and support to ships and their crews during COVID-19 and any future Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

Furthre information can be found here.

New Ship Broker Course Launched

FONASBA is pleased to announce the launch of a new, entry-level course for ship brokers, the FONASBA Certificate in the Fundamentals of Shipbroking. Developed for FONASBA by the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, the market leader in education for shipbrokers, the online course runs parallel, and is adminstered in a similar way, to the FONASBA Agent Diploma.

The course is available to employees of companies in membership of FONASBA national associations, or Associate member companies.

Full details of the course can be found here.

FONASBA Annual Meeting 2021 Postponed to March 2022

Concerns about the levels of COVID infections in Belgium in December, and the resulting imposition of restrictions on meetings and social events, led to the Executive Committee and our hosts NAVES and the Antwerp Shipping Federation agreeing to postpone the meeting planned for 30th November to 3rd December.

Following that decision, which subsequent events have proven to the be the correct one, negotiations were reopened with the Lindner Hotel, the conference venue, the Antwerp Stock Exchange, venue for the Gala Dinner, and the other social event hosts and we are pleased to report that the meeting has now been rescheduled for the week commencing 14th March 2022.

Further details of the rescheduled Annual Meeting can be found on the Events page here.

FONASBA Issues Sustainable Development Declaration

With the environmental and sustainability profile of shipping under scrutiny as never before, all the component sectors must play their part in achieving real reductions in emissions and enhancements in sustainability – and ship agents and ship brokers are no different.

Compared to the shipping and port sectors, for example, the overall emissions footprint of both professions is relatively small, but the role of the broker and agent in guiding, informing, and supporting shipowners and charterers, from the fixing of the vessel to completion of the port call, means they have a specific and influential role to play in ensuring that the voyage is as clean and green as possible.

With COP26 imminent, and to encourage the ship broking and ship agency sectors to take positive action to support the overall aims of reducing emissions and enhancing sustainability, FONASBA has issued a Sustainable Development Declaration. Equally applicable to those working directly in those professions as to the national associations that support and represent them, and to FONASBA itself, the Declaration provides guidance to enable ship agents and ship brokers in playing an active and effective role alongside other industry partners.

A copy of the Declaration can be found here

FONASBA Annual Meeting 2021 Launched

FONASBA’s 2021 Annual Meeting will be held in Antwerp, Belgium from 30th November to 3rd December, hosted by NAVES, the Belgian Ship Agents’ and Ship Brokers’ Association.

NAVES has established a dedicated website for the event that can be found at: www.fonasbaantwerp2021.com It includes full details of the delegate and partner programmes, the conference hotel, information on travel to Antwerp,  current COVID-19 regulations, precautions and facilities and a host of other useful guidance. The website also includes links to the registration and hotel booking applications.