Maritime London, the industry-led body representing maritime professional services in the UK, held the inaugural UK-China Shipping Forum, as part of the Pudong International Shipping Week 2025, at Jinmao Tower in Shanghai on December 4th.
The event provided a platform to discuss how the industry has responded to current commercial and regulatory environment and the practical solutions to the industry’s decarbonisation. Maritime London’s Chief Executive Jos Standerwick commented: ‘Most importantly, the event was a physical example of how China and the UK can collaborate.”
The inaugural China - UK Shipping Forum provided a platform to discuss how the industry has responded to current commercial and regulatory environment and the practical solutions to the industry’s decarbonisation. Maritime London’s Chief Executive Jos Standerwick commented: ‘Most importantly, the event was a physical example of how China and the UK can collaborate.”
Organised in partnership with Silverstream, a London headquartered market-leading maritime clean technology company specialising in hull air lubrication for commercial shipping, the event was supported by the UK Department for Business & Trade, Beyond Shipping, China Shipping Association of London and Xinde Marine.
Henry Oliver, Deputy Head of Civil Maritime at the UK Department for Business & Trade welcomed the audience passing the floor to Ms Liu Xiaodan, Director of Shipping Service Department of Shanghai Pudong New Area Commission of Commerce, who delivered an Opening address.
Xu Chen, Assistant Director, Transportation Logistics Research Centre, Xinhua Indices delivered a presentation, which talked about what it is that the world's leading international shipping centres got right to get to and hold leading positions in the Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index (ISCDI).
Mark Assaf, Chief of Human Resources Development, TRAINFORTRADE at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) delivered a presentation summarising the latest edition of the Maritime Transport report 2025 Report published annually by UNCTAD.
Maritime London’s Chief Executive Jos Standerwick moderated the ‘Navigating regulatory and trade uncertainties’ panel discussion. The speakers included Mark Assaf, Chief of Human Resources Development, TRAINFORTRADE, UNCTAD, Jin Yu Cheong, Head of Asia Baltic Exchange, Janice Lee, Partner at Hill Dickinson Hong Kong and Vineet Puri, Head, Global Shipping & Logistics, Asia Pacific, Citi.
The panel explored how freight markets, the contractual landscape, asset financing and the maritime labour force have responded to the increasingly complex trading and regulatory landscape.
The second session focused on how Energy Efficiency Technologies (EETs) bridge the transition to alternative fuels, enhance vessel performance, and reshape commercial relationships through shared efficiency gains, and importantly, extend the commercial lives of assets in a tight freight market.
Moderated by Guy Platten, Advisor, Non-Executive Director and former Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the panel included Dimitris N. Monioudis, Chairman – Technical Committee of Intercargo, Noah Silberschmidt, Founder and CEO of Silverstream Technologies, Nikos Tsatsaros, Head of China Technical Performance Group at Lloyd's Register and Zhang Zhuo, Deputy Director, Ship Type Expert, Senior Naval Architect at CSSC Innovation Center (SDARI).
Noah Silberschmidt, who founded Silverstream in 2010, outlined how the Silverstream®️ System reduces frictional resistance between the water and the hull surface, significantly reducing net fuel consumption and associated emissions, adding that the savings delivered to Silversteam’s clients have been verified by independent third parties, including classification societies, academic institutions and shipping industry leaders. He said: “It’s important for us to verify our savings for our customers and we continue to innovate so we can deliver the best solutions for our customers”.
In response to the question of how we can stimulate regulators to endorse proven technologies, Noah responded: “Almost all our owners are sharing their data with us. We use this to understand the operational profile of their ships and how best we can calibrate our technology. We need to verify performance with data.”
The event concluded with a networking reception.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Xinde Marine News.
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