Sea Asia 2011 Day Two Continues to See Surge of Visitors; Ship Finance Session a Major Draw (Singapore)

The Sea Asia conference and exhibition, Asia’s iconic show for the maritime sector taking place in Singapore this week, continued at a pace this morning with sessions on finance, the global LNG fleet, and a high-powered array of technical sessions.

While visitors to the exhibition at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre continued to click through the gates this morning, delegates at the ship finance session were hearing a discussion on the current state of the global ship finance market.

Chaired by Harald Serck-Hanssen, Global Head of Shipping, Offshore and Logistics at DnB NOR bank, the session heard a senior panel of speakers discuss the supply and demand equation in the sector. More than 200 delegates attended the morning session.

The keynote address in the session was given by Spyros Polemis, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping, who gave a macro outlook on what owners and financiers may expect in the next 12 months.

Also speaking at the finance session this morning were Nigel Anton, managing director and head of shipping at Standard Chartered Bank, Dagfinn Lunde, head of the shipping division at DVB Bank, Henry Mytton-Mills, managing director of Aries Shipbroking and Ticy Thomas, a research analyst at the Centre for Maritime Studies , National University of Singapore.

The LNG sector session and the Technical Day sessions also proved strong crowd pullers and Sea Asia organiser Seatrade confirmed today that conference delegate numbers were significantly ahead of the total at the event last in 2009.

Sea Asia, which articulates the Voice of the Asian maritime communities, has captured the imagination of the global shipping community. It was officially opened yesterday (April 12) by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Mr Teo Chee Hean.

More than 12,000 people are expected to attend Sea Asia, which occupies 13,600 sq m of gross space at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. It has more than 6,200 sq m of net used space in an exhibition booked by 340 maritime and shipping businesses from 40 countries. Country pavilions include China, Japan, Norway, Panama, Singapore, Turkey and the UK.

Sea Asia, co-organised by Seatrade and the Singapore Maritime Foundation, has established itself as the leading international maritime show for Asia since its inception in 2007.

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Source: HELIXMEDIA, April 13, 2011