Shipping and by default, the Marine Insurance industry found itself in an unexpected cycl(on)e of having to deal with the combined impact of the knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine and the Russian sanctions, coupled with natural catastrophes and consequently increased claims costs, while trying to keep pace with regulatory and inflationary challenges.

• What were these knock-on effects and what was their financial and commercial impact on the marine insurance and shipping industry?
• Behind the scenes; How did the industry respond to these challenges?
• How will the market be able to weather these consequences to come out of this cycle?

The above and more, were discussed at the 1^st CSN Cyprus and Greece Marine Insurance Conferences which took place in Limassol and Athens on May 11^th and 16^th respectively and were overwhelmingly embraced by members of the shipping and marine insurance industry in both countries, and exceeded the organisers’ attendance expectations.

The Conferences involved 14 guest speakers from across the marine insurance and shipping industries. The conference participants had the opportunity to hear first hand, speakers from the IMO, IUMI, P&I Clubs, Hull insurers and Shipowners share their experiences and bring in the forefront all the “behind the scenes” efforts that the industry has made to deal with all these challenges. Despite all efforts, sanctions still remains most probably the biggest challenge and poses an increasing need to introduce compliance uniformity across the industry.

The Limassol event was under the auspices of the Cyprus Shipping Deputy Ministry and supported by the Cyprus Shipping Chamber, the Cyprus Marine Club, CYMEPA, WISTA Cyprus, YoungShip Cyprus and ICS Cyprus. The Athens event was under the auspices of the Propeller Club and supported by The Hellenic Committee of Lloyd’s Brokers Associates, HELMEPA and Wista Greece.

The attendance of the conferences was free for all employees of shipping and shipping related organisations in Cyprus and Greece, but the delegates donated generously to the charity foundations supported by the conferences “One dream One Wish” in Cyprus and the “Hatzikiriakio Child Care Institution” in Greece.

Cyprus Shipping News is particularly grateful to the chairwoman, speakers, moderators and panellists, who addressed the Conferences throughout the two days, as well as the supporters and sponsors for helping to build this very exciting conference programme.

We at CSN would also like to thank the sponsors, without whom, we would not be able to organise this conference:

• AlphaOmegaZed our Platinum sponsor
• NorthStandard and WEST our Silver sponsors
• Aphentrica Marine Insurance Brokers lunch sponsor, Columbia Shipmanagement, Arribatec Marine, Albatros Adjusters and Advanced Management Solutions
• Aphentrica our Charity Sponsor for the charity foundation “One Dram One Wish”
• Seanergy and United Maritime the Charity Sponsors for the charity foundation “Hatzikiriakio Child Care Institution”

Thank you all for your continuous support and commitment to the Cyprus Shipping News.

The video recordings of the speeches and panel discussions are to be found under the CSN YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@cyprusshippingnews4432

The presentations and photos of the conferences can be found under the following links:

https://cyprusshippingevents.com/1st-csn-cyprus-marine-insurance-conference-2023/

https://cyprusshippingevents.com/1st-csn-greece-marine-insurance-conference-2023/