13 ottobre 2017
Influencers and thought leaders from across the maritime industry convened in Naples to take part in the 8th edition of Shipping & The Law.
Held in the 17th century splendour of the Court Theatre at the Royal Palace of Naples and organised by Studio Legale Lauro the event was hosted by Managing Partner Francesco S Lauro, the conference saw participation of a number of leading figures from shipowning, finance, law, insurance from Naples and around the world.
A series of panels and interviews interspersed with keynotes from leading industry practitioners saw discussion of the threats and opportunities in shipping, including the rise of China, the effects of climate change as well as free trade and protectionism in the era of Brexit and the Trump administration.
“Through its eight editions, Shipping and the Law has become much more than a maritime conference, it is a forum for the Naples shipping community to exchange ideas and debate with the industry at large,” said Managing Partner Francesco S Lauro. “Once again, some of the leading thinkers and practitioners shared their views on the critical topics affecting the entire shipping cluster and I thank them for their participation.”
Speakers included ECSA President elect Panos Laskaridis, Confitarma President elect Mario Mattioli, ICS Chairman Esben Poulsson, President of the Antwerp Port Authority, Marc Van Peel and Magda Kopczynska, Director of Waterborne Transport, European Commission Former Director of the IOPC Funds Måns Jacobsson spoke on the impending review to the Fund’s policy on economic loss from oil spills and President, Associazione Italiana di Diritto Marittimo Giorgio Berlingieri shared the main outcomes of the CMI 2017 in Genoa.
The conference also included keynote interviews, which saw Tradewinds’ columnist Terry Macalister in conversation with Banchero Costa founder Lorenzo Banchero and Bianco D’Antonio interview local shipping legend Peppino D’Amato.
The two-day proceedings included sessions focussing on ports and ship finance as well as legal and arbitration issues, the future for family-owned Italian shipping companies and the path towards a more digital, smart shipping future.
Shipping and the Law was held in the Court Theatre at the Royal Palace of Naples.
Link: http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/shipping-the-law-conference-draws-maritime-royalty-to-naples/
If the Bay of Naples in the autumn sun does not lift the spirit and inspire you to think big about the world, then nothing will. That is the theory of Francesco Lauro, a Neapolitan lawyer and former port boss with more energy than the Italian electricity grid. He runs an annual “Shipping and the Law” event in the Italian city, this year using the Royal Palace of Naples.
His ambitious plan seems to work, even when it demands verbal informality on the stage of the palace’s stunning 18th-century baroque Court Theatre.
Some of the world’s most important maritime figures arrived to debate major themes such as the rise of Chinese maritime power, the impact of Donald Trump as US president and what to do about climate change.
How refreshing to hear some gloves-off debate without the usual stiff conference protocols and overlong individual speeches.
So what did we learn? That the mighty Chinese shipping and trade juggernaut is a threat and an opportunity.
There is much to love about the extraordinary modernisation of the Far East economy and the dry bulk boom it inspired.
But there is also apprehension about the huge buying power of the state-backed Chinese shipowning, yard and port community, which is sweeping up assets all over the world.
Mario Mattioli, the newly installed head of Italian shipowners’ association Confitarma, has watched Chinese money being poured into local ports such as Vado Ligure, near Genoa, and Venice, as well as docks in Spain, Turkey, and Egypt.
Mattioli said Italy being at the end of the new Belt and Road Initiative could offer great advantages.
But he also admitted he found it “scary” that the kind of cash being used by Beijing was many times the scale of the Marshall Plan, which refloated Europe’s bombed-out economies after World War II.
Magda Kopczynska, director for waterborne transport at the European Commission, said much of what was happening was positive and it was getting easier to communicate with Beijing.
But there was still a certain lack of transparency and Western investment in China was not subject to the same sort of freedoms that Chinese investment enjoyed in the West.
This should change, as European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) president-elect Panos Laskiridis agreed. Would the European Commission intervene in any further Chinese port investments in Europe? Kopczynska said she would certainly like to see European ports and governments set the ground rules for reciprocal arrangements in China.
There was much debate next on the moves towards political separatism and trade protection raised by Trump, Brexit and latest political developments in the Spanish region of Catalonia.
The general reaction from the shipping community was to ride the choppy waters but remain relaxed.
There were hopes of that dry bulk boom coming on the back of a promised increase in infrastructure spending but clearly concerns that there could be any strengthening of laws such as the Jones Act.
The Trump bark was perhaps worse than his bite, given the constraints he faced from his own Republican Party opposition.
But, equally, a second four-year term of Trump policy was regarded as a potential threat to shipping.
More heat was generated in the debate over global warming, not least when British energy economist Leo Drollas questioned the whole basis of action against climate change. He believed it was impossible that new technology could arrive quickly enough to sweep away oil-fired ships.
And then there was an interesting contrast in the attitudes of the representatives from the International Chamber of Shipping and the ECSA.
ICS chairman Esben Poulsson was determined to paint a positive picture, saying his members were keen to play a leading role to reduce their CO2emissions.
Laskiridis struck a more combative stance, admitting he had not really listened to an earlier audio presentation on the issue from Baroness Bryony Worthington — the lead author on the UK’s Climate Change Act — as she sounded like “a typical politician”.
He said shipping was hampered by a lack of any real breakthroughs on alternative non-fossil-fuel bunkers. If operational options were going to be used, such as globally imposed slow steaming, then costs would rise and shippers would have to foot the bill.
I am not sure this bodes well for progress on carbon constraints at the International Maritime Organization, but it made for good drama in the Royal Palace.
Francesco Lauro’s Shipping and the Law conferences have become one of the architectural delights of the Italian shipping calendar.
Last week’s event, held in the 18th-century grandeur of the Court Theatre at the Royal Palace of Naples, was no exception.
The eighth edition of the annual conference, organised by Lauro’s law firm Studio Legale Lauro, focused on the rise of China, climate change, and free trade and protectionism in the era of Brexit and the Trump administration.
Speakers included European Community Shipowners’ Association president-elect Panos Laskaridis, Confitarma president-elect Mario Mattioli, International Chamber of Shipping chairman Esben Poulsson and Antwerp Port Authority president Marc Van Peel.
Mans Jacobsson, former director of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds, spoke on the impending review of the funds’ policy on economic loss from oil spills.
TradeWinds columnist Terry Macalister interviewed Banchero Costa president Lorenzo Banchero, and veteran Italian journalist Bianca D’Antonio interviewed Naples shipowner Peppino D’Amato.
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13 ottobre 2017
“Finché l’Europa mantiene la tonnage tax, gli armatori europei sono in condizione di essere competitivi con gli altri protagonisti del mercato, per questo la maggiore influenza della Cina nel Mediterraneo è una sfida che le flotte europee possono raccogliere”. Questa la sida lanciata oggi a Napoli da Esben Poulsson, presidente dell’International Chamber of Shipping. La Cina e la sua sempre maggiore presenza nel Mediterraneo, è stato uno degli argomenti al centro della prima giornata di Shipping and the Law, la due giorni di convegni sulla navigazione marittima globale organizzato da Francesco Saverio Lauro, avvocato marittimista, giunta alla sua VIII edizione. “Lo shipping – ha aggiunto Poulsson – è un settore di libero commercio e se sei un operatore e sai fare affari, se ordini una nave al momento giusto e fai scelte oculate avrai successo”. Proprio sugli investimenti si è concentrato Mario Mattioli, nuovo presidente di Confitarma, che ha sottolineato come: “La crisi ha cambiato il paradigma degli investimenti. Oggi gli armatori fanno investimenti notevoli su singole navi, ma c’è bisogno di grande attenzione, fare un nave sbagliata può decretare quasi la fine di un’impresa. Fortunatamente c’è un forte dialogo con il sistema bancario e le maggiori banche sostengono lo shipping: con l’ABI abbiamo definito le procedure e pur perdurando una situazione di crisi, il sistema bancario ha sostenuto l’Italia più di quanto sia accaduto in altri Paesi”. Mattioli ha anche elogiato il dialogo aperto tra armatori e Unione Europea: “L’Unione Europea – ha detto – sta lavorando sull’agenda mare e questo è un bene. Abbiamo un impianto di regole nell’Ue che ha consentito di mantenere la competitività della flotta: la tonnage tax consente alle navi europee di competere alla pari con le flotte non-Ue che hanno condizioni favorevoli sia da punto vista della regolamentazione dell’imbarco e degli equipaggi, sia dal punto di vista fiscale. L’Ue considera l’agenda mare una priorità e questo ci fa piacere”. Nella prima giornata di Shippig and the Law la discussione si è focalizzata anche sulle strategie degli armatori per affrontare le nuove regole sul taglio delle emissioni inquinanti: “Sulla riduzione – ha spiegato Mattioli – delle emissioni si sta facendo molto a livello internazionale, usando carburanti meno inquinanti a basso contenuto di zolfo: siamo nel tempo del gas naturale liquido che è meno inquinante, ma bisogna capire come si muovono le potenze mondiali, sappiamo che in Cina proliferano le centrali a carbone, che sono tra le più inquinanti”. Una posizione più morbida nei confronti della Cina è stata assunta da Poulsson: “E’ giusto sottolineare – ha detto – che i cinesi usano le centrali a carbone ma d’altro canto loro sono molto concentrati sul processo di protezione dell’ambiente, sono costruttivi nei consessi internazionali. Bisogna anche sottolineare che la Cina è il Paese che investe di più nelle auto elettriche, può sembrare paradossale ma oggi i cinesi sono più costruttivi degli americani sotto questo punto di vista”. Francesco Saverio Lauro si è concentrato sugli aspetti normativi, sottolineando che “per riuscire ad abbassare le emissioni di Co2 anche nel commercio marittimo “serve un quadro normativo uniforme a livello internazionale, non solo italiano ed europeo ma a livello mondiale. Lo shipping è una soluzione alle emissioni non un problema perché è il metodo di trasporto più sostenibile. Ma su questo tema la discussione è aperta e abbiamo qui aa Napoli l’Internationl Chamber of Shipping (Ics) che si occupa di trattare con l’Imo della strategia globale della riduzione delle emissioni di Co2 in linea con gli obiettivi fissati dall’accordo di Parigi. Nessuna politica ambiziosa, anche quella di maggiore sostenibilità, per funzionare deve essere sostenuta da una norma internazionale, delle convenzioni altrimenti tutto sarà inutile o addirittura avremo il risultato che i meno virtuosi saranno i vincenti sul mercato”. A Napoli si è parlato anche dello scalo partenopeo,, con Mattioli che ha sottolineato come “il porto di Napoli – ha detto – in questo momento ha una governance importante. Stimo il presidente Spirito e apprezzo la sua grande determinazione. Farà bene e avrà il nostro apporto costruttivo, anche per i dragaggi. E’ fondamentale farli, li sempre appoggiati e continueremo a farlo. Poi i porti italiani hanno sempre difficoltà a crescere, soprattutto quelli nelle città: abbiamo un numero di porti elevatissimo, non potremo mai competere con Rotterdam che fa in 10 mesi volumi che tutti i porti italiani fanno in 12. Dobbiamo guardare a porti come a un servizio importante all’industria localizzata, cercando di specializzarli il più possibile”.