FONASBA is pleased to announce that the winner of the Young Ship Agent or Broker Award for 2017 is Niklas Soltow, a ship agent from Germany, pictured below:

His paper was extremely well-received by the judges, with Review Committee Chairman Gunnar J. Heinonen describing it as “just the type of paper we were expecting”. A copy of Niklas’ paper can be found here.

Close on the heels of Mr. Soltow’s paper was another excellent entry from Katy Aldrick from Kenya who won a Highly Commended award for her efforts. A copy of her paper can be found here. A further four entries were received from Argentina, Brazil, Croatia and a second from Kenya.

Mr.  Heinonen said “All the entries again this year have proved that the concept of the Award is a good one. We will continue to build on the experiences of the first three years to develop the Award to make it even more interesting to the growing number of young ship brokers and ship agents who represent the future of our profession”.

FONASBA once again thanks our colleagues at BIMCO and ITIC for their sponsorship of the Young Agent award prizes for 2017.

A copy of the press release issued by FONASBA on Monday 21st August can be found here.

FONASBA is delighted to congratulate our colleagues at the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers on winning the Education & Training Award at the 2015 BIMCO Annual Awards Ceremony held in Hamburg on 18th November. Acknowledging the Institute’s achievement, ICS Director Julie Lithgow said “(winning the award) was completely surprising and a bit overwhelming. There are lots of organisations offering maritime training or education, and for BIMCO to notice us, and to specifically acknowledge our commitment to “leave no student behind”, was very special. This can only happen because our members actively support our education programme and by doing so allow our students to have access to our courses and examinations worldwide.

CS Director Julie Lithgow receiving the 2015 BIMCO Education & Training Award from Giampiero Soncini, Chief Executive of the Award sponsors Spectec.

Following from the success of the first Young Ship Agent or Ship Broker award, FONASBA is pleased to announce today (16^th November 2015) the launch of the 2016 award, which is once again generously supported by our colleagues at BIMCO and ITIC. The criteria for the award are unchanged so in summary we are once more inviting employees (aged 40 or under) of companies that are members of a FONASBA national association or directly employed by a FONASBA Club or Associate Member to submit a paper of up to 10,000 words on a subject related to the ship agency or ship broking professions or the wider maritime sector. The detailed award criteria, including the relevant deadlines for submitting initial summaries and the finished paper, can be downloaded here.

The winner of the Award will be invited to attend the Gala Dinner at the 2016 Annual Meeting in the London to receive their prize. The Award Review Committee look forward to receiving your entries and to making the 2016 Award another very successful event.

All questions relating to the Award criteria, eligibility or other matters should be addressed to Sara Robeznik at their FONASBA Secretariat: admin@fonasba.com

World Maritime Day 2015 took place on 24th September and this year the celebrations included a symposium on maritime education and training held at IMO Headquarters London. FONASBA’s support for the initiative led to an invitation from the IMO Secretary General Koji Sekimizu, to address the symposium on the actions it is taking to support education and training within its worldwide membership. Reproduced below are some photographs of FONASBA’s participation in the symposium:

Jonathan Williams addresses the symposium at IMO

Taking a question from the floor

Maritime students and cadets from around the world attended the event.

A copy of FONASBA’s presentation to IMO can be downloaded here: FONASBA IMO WMD PRESENTATION 2015

A total of seven entries for the inaugural Young Ship Agent or Broker Award were received by the Award Review Panel. The papers were scrutinised over the summer by the Panel, consisting of former FONASBA President and Honorary Member Gunnar J. Heinonen (Chairman) FONASBA Vice President for Education Capt. Jakov Karmelic, and Charlotte Kirk FICS representing ITIC, one of the prize sponsors.

On 15^th August, Mr. Heinonen announced that the winner of the Award was Renan Queiroz, a ship agent with Wilson Sons Ltda., of Brazil. Our congratulations go to Mr. Queiroz and also to the other six entrants for their excellent papers. Mr. Queiroz will be invited to attend the FONASBA Annual Meeting in Vitória, Brazil in October to receive his prizes, which were generously donated by ITIC and BIMCO.

Renan Queiroz, winner of the 2015 Award

A copy of the press release issued by FONASBA on 17^th August can be found here.

Entries for the 2016 Young Ship Agent or Broker Award will open later this year. Further details will be published on this website in due course.

ECASBA, has brought together a broad coalition of European shipping sector organisations to issue a joint statement calling on the European Parliament, Commission and Member States to honour the commitments to support short sea shipping that were made in May last year in the Athens Declaration.

ECASBA General Manager Jonathan C. Williams FICS, who coordinated the joint letter, said that the Declaration included a clear and unequivocal call by Transport Ministers for concerted action by Europe to allow short sea shipping to exploit its full potential as the most efficient and environmentally friendly mode of transport. One year on however, the actions that require to be taken to allow the Declaration aims to be achieved, have still not been progressed, he added.

The joint letter, a copy of which is attached, said that in spite of the Declaration commitments, inaction by some European institutions and Member State authorities continued to frustrate efforts to allow short sea shipping to compete with road and rail on a level playing field. Inaction on reducing administrative burdens, restrictions on port and terminal development, the failure by competing modes to pay their full infrastructure cost and a lack of a functioning single market in shipping, combined with environmental impediments such as the imposition of the SECA in the North and Baltic Seas, were hampering efforts to utilise the considerable growth potential of short sea shipping.

Williams said that the signatory associations were holding Europe to account on its commitments and wanted to see positive progress sooner rather than later.

The Athens Declaration letter was jointly signed by ECASBA in concert with the associations representing freight forwarders; CLECAT, shipowners; ECSA, shippers; ESC, port authorities; ESPO, the European Shortsea Network; ESN, terminal operators; FEPORT, ferry operators; INTERFERRY and the major container lines; WSC.

A copy of the joint letter can be found here: ATHENS DECLARATION – JOINT STATEMENT FINAL – APRIL 2015

During the 2015 ECASBA seminar in Brussels on 2nd March, FONASBA President Glen Gordon Findlay and Escola Europea de Short Sea Shipping (2E3S) Director Eduard Rodes signed a cooperation agreement to work together in developing projects to enhance short sea shipping, coastal and inland navigation worldwide.

Pictured above, 2E3S Director Eduard Rodes (centre left) and FONASBA President Glen Gordon Findlay (centre right) with the signed agreement. Also pictured are FONASBA President Designate John Foord FICS (far left) and ECASBA Chairman Antonio Belmar da Costa (far right). Click on the image to view it in Hi-resolution.

A copy of the press released issued by FONASBA and 2E3S is available here: PRESS RELEASE – FONASBA-ECASBA-2E3S MARCH 2015

ECASBA is proud to join with other European shipping organisations in announcing European Shipping Week, a new event aimed at demonstrating to the European Parliament, Council, Commission, policy makers and other stakeholders the breadth, depth and value of Europe’s shipping industry.

The inaugural Shipping Week will take place in Brussels in February or March 2015 and as a member of the steering committee, ECASBA will be closely involved in the development of the common events, which will include a welcome reception, a high-level conference and a gala dinner. ECASBA, along with the other organisations represented on the steering committee, will also be organising its own event during the week.

A copy of the initial press release issued by the steering committee members and event organiser Shipping Innovation on 31^st July is attached and further details of the event will follow in due course.

ANNOUNCING EUROPEAN SHIPPING WEEK 2015

The full range of courses for shore-based shipping professionals provided by FONASBA member associations are now publicly available for the first time via this website. This unique resource brings short summaries of all the courses together in one searchable database, allowing  students and others to sort the information using a number of criteria as well as view all entries if so required. The data in each course template is provided and maintained by the relevant association and so a link is provided to the association’s own website from where much more detail can be obtained.

The course can be directly accessed via this link www.fonasba.com/fonasba-education-and-training

A copy of the FONASBA press release announcing this latest education initiative can be found here: PRESS RELEASE – EDUCATION PAGES – MAY 2014

On 21st January 2014, four of Europe’s main port user groups – ECSA, representing shipowners, CLECAT, freight forwarders,  ESC, shippers and ECASBA, ship agents and brokers – issued a joint letter calling on the European Parliament’s Transport Committee (TRAN) to ensure that the measures included in the European Commission’s fourth port package are not diluted by amendments to such an extent that the proposal is effectively neutered.

The four organisations said that the measures originally proposed were realistic, appropriate and addressed the main issues facing the European port industry. Furthermore, they said that by being rather less ambitious than its predecessors, this fourth attempt by the Commission to liberalise and open up the provision of services in ports stood a much better chance of being introduced. Doing so would bring about the changes urgently needed to ensure the European port industry was open, efficient and better able to support Europe’s economic development.

Since its publication, however, the provisions in the proposal have been subject to significant pressure from port and service provider groups who have both tabled a large number of amendments to the proposal in Parliament and also lobbied Member State governments.

The joint letter, however, calls on the TRAN Committee to resist pressure to water down the proposals.

A copy of the joint letter can be down loaded here: JOINT PORT USER GROUP LETTER TO TRAN – JAN 2014