20/06/2026
Posidonia 2026
The Posidonia is over. The echo that reflects within certain thoughts and ideas still remains.
The safety of maritime transport has always played a primary role in the global shipping industry. It is the core that ensures the protection of seafarers, ships and cargoes being transported, but it also plays a decisive role in the protection of the environment.
New technologies and environmental regulations are trying to reduce carbon emissions. The famous decarbonization. Current and real. The intention, or better to say, the goal, is carbon-free fuels. More economical ships with less consumption. Modernization and shift to alternative energy sources. Wind energy as an aid for ship movement. Methanol, LNG, hydrogen and other new sources under exploration.
On the other hand, new geopolitical developments are changing the situations and the smooth flow of sea routes, as well as the dynamics of freight rates. In addition to the supply and demand of capacity, unpredictable shipping cycles are being created, influenced by the evolution of geopolitical events, but also by the energy destabilization that occurs in oil and natural gas prices, while coal and carbon negatively affect environmental developments. The shortage is obvious and demand is rising. The market structure is changing. Prices going up and create an environment of uncertainty. The domino effect is in full swing. Inflation follows.
Let's not confuse economic theory with the ship. This is, and continues to be a "tool" that has a soul. But also luck. Two identical ships - sister ships - of the same size, from the same shipyard, fall into the sea on the same day. I don't know what Nasdaq will write on the board the next day. Surely, everyone's luck will be different.
There must now be the ability of shipping companies, in the ships they manage, to have the ability to assess and adapt to the new situations that arise. To look ahead. Like the management of risk, both the unforeseen and the visible. And not only when you pass the "Gate of Tears" in the straits of Bab-el-Manded, you perceive another form of risk, as a result to avoid pirates, you are forced to make an entire crossing around of Africa, to the benefit of the lack of capacity. As for the Straits on the other side, I don't discuss it, We watch it with bated breath. On one day cries, on the other laughs. Ups and downs. The higher the risk, the higher the profit, we learned in the Economics of Shipping, while "Calm follows rough seas."
Greek shipping, with the highest contribution to economic growth worldwide, continues to move forward unwaveringly, steadily forward, in the current climate of uncertainty that pervades the entire globe. I hope and wish that it is temporary. And finally I am happy because one in three ships is of Greek interests. Certainly and proven, We know how to run ships !!
Along with an excerpt from the book “The Shift” by Nikos Kavvadias (1954): “It is not the sea that we shadow. We command it and it commands us. No one knows how to sail like the Greeks. Give them the newest ship. They take away his hooves in one shift. In the second they change his patents. Throw them into the most dishonorable climate. Without their hats. In the strangest sea. In the most difficult channel. In the band pilot and portolanes.”
We move forward leading the way, and according to my favorite expression, … it remains to be seen! T.J.L.
