DONSÖ SHIPPING MEET

Donsö, just outside Göteborg, has a long tradition of shipping. Despite the island’s limited size, around a dozen shipping companies are based here. The background to the Donsö Shipping Meet was that the shipping companies wanted to gather their supplier meetings in one place. The result has been a successful meeting place that includes a trade fair, a rich seminar program, panel discussions and a program of organized meetings, as well as the opportunity for spontaneous meetings. This year’s theme was Clean Ocean with Future in Sight, addressing the various challenges facing the maritime industries in terms of climate change adaptation and the path towards becoming carbon neutral.

“As the Secretary General of the United Nations recently said, this is code red for all humanity,” said the first keynote speaker, Bo Cerup-Simonsen, CEO of the Maersk Mc-Kinney Möller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping. “We have reached a point in time when we need to do something about climate change, and we need to do it fast. With 3 per cent of global carbon emissions, it is important that our sector is a part of the solution.”

In his speech, he highlighted four particularly important areas for further efforts: continued energy efficiency, making green fuels available for ships, global regulations and standards, and support for first movers and fast followers.

These issues were also discussed further during the Commercial and Financing Meet seminar, where Carl-Johan Hagman, then CEO of Stena Rederi AB, participated in a panel discussion together with representatives from the Volvo Group and Orkla Group. Some of the challenges highlighted were the lack of a global regulatory framework and a global carbon tax, as well as the uncertainty of future fuels, technologies and market conditions, in contrast to the long-term investments that new shipbuilding always entails.

“There is no doubt that the technical solutions exist,” said Carl-Johan Hagman. “The issue is rather structural and philosophical, where it is about changing our mindset. A global carbon tax would have been the ideal solution. We would then have fixed this in 3–4 years. But the industry can’t wait for that, it has to drive the transformation itself.”

Niklas Gustafsson, Chief Sustainability Officer for the Volvo Group, stressed the importance of partnerships to jointly solve the challenges, as well as the importance of first movers.

“I would like to encourage everyone here to join the First Movers Coalition. “It’s a global initiative that utilizes the purchasing power of companies to reduce carbon emissions in a number of sectors. This could mean, for example, buying only carbon-free steel or carbon-free transport,” he pointed out.

The trade fair, underway from June 14–15, attracted 2,100 visitors from 25 countries, 95 shipping companies and 260 exhibitors. Among the exhibitors was Elin Kristensson, CEO of the more than 100-year-old Donsö company Northern Energy & Supply (N-E-S), which deals with bunker oil, lubricants, marine logistics and the CEO of the shipping company Northern Offshore Services (N-O-S), which serves the offshore wind industry with high speed catamarans. Both companies are part of the Northern Offshore Group.

“For me, this is by far the best fair to attend,” says Elin Kristensson All the right customers are here and there’s an effective speed-meeting structure. Our companies are sponsoring the fair and are participating in all the ways we can.”

There were also some international exhibitors, including German TGE Marine, a supplier of cargo handling and fuel gas systems.

“It’s my first time here and I’m surprised that the fair is so big and that there are so many participants,” says Max Fröhlich, Proposal Manager for TGE Marine. “The best thing is that a lot of our customers are here, and we can meet both them and our suppliers.”

Stena’s stand was staffed by employees from Stena RoRo, Stena Bulk, Stena Teknik, Clyde Travel and the HR departments at Stena Rederi and Stena Line.

“It’s both fun and valuable to have the opportunity to be here together like this with colleagues from other Stena companies,” says Nils Israelsson, from Commercial Operations at Stena Bulk. “And the models of our new vessels the Stena Infinity Max and Stena Elektra we at the stand have attracted a lot of attention and led to many questions.”

Prior to the fair, DSM’s HR group, which includes Stena Rederi and Stena Line, had also taken the opportunity to organize an event related to the tremendous need for skills in the shipping industry.

“The industry’s recruitment needs are greater than the number of students coming out of the school system,” says Angela Jenhed, Senior Advisor for Shipping & Manning at Stena Rederi. “That’s why we invited all the country’s guidance counsellors to an information day with panel discussions, a trade fair and ship visits to increase their knowledge of all the professions and career opportunities in the maritime sector and thus attract more young people to our industry and its academic programs. The evaluation questionnaire we sent out afterwards shows that the participants were very satisfied and that they had gained useful knowledge about shipping that they can pass on to interested students in the future.”