Peter Malpas
IMSF Secretary
C/o Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay Ltd
Lombard House, 3 Princess Way, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1UP, UK
December 5, 2004
TO ALL MEMBERS, INTERNATIONAL MARITIME STATISTICS FORUM
Dear Member
MINUTES OF IMSF ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2004 & ADVANCE NOTICE OF 2005 CONFERENCE
Please find enclosed minutes of the Steering Group meeting and a list of papers delivered at the 2004 annual conference hosted by the Chamber of Shipping of British Columbia in Vancouver, 18th & 19th May. The Forum wishes to thank the Chamber for their invaluable assistance in making the event a success and in particular the provision of an excellent venue.
Feedback during and after the conference from delegates suggests that this year's papers were of an exceptionally high quality. It was particularly pleasing to hear such comments from new delegates. Whilst the number of delegates was marginally down on last years conference, it is encouraging to note that the attendance this year represented a 50% increase compared with the last time the conference was held in North America, in 2001.
Following the conference, the Port of Vancouver kindly sponsored a boat trip of the harbour which included a superb luncheon and hospitality. The weather conditions and beautiful vista of the mountains certainly added to the enjoyment of the event and the IMSF is very grateful to the Port of Vancouver for their support of the Forum.
The Executive are now able to confirm that the 2005 meeting will be held in Helsinki and will be hosted by Wartsila. There is a possibility the conference will be held on board one of the luxury Baltic ferries although this is yet to be confirmed. Exact dates for the conference have also yet to be finalised although it is expected to be during the first week of June. Further details will be circulated as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully
Peter Malpas
Secretary, International Maritime Statistics Forum
PRESENTATIONS & PAPERS AT THE IMSF ANNUAL CONFERENCE
18th & 19th MAY 2004
Updates
EU Maritime Transport Statistics (Alan Brown)
US Statistical Developments (Bill Ebersold)
Shipping in British Columbia (Rick Bryant)
Safety and security
Port facility coding system (Michelle Parker)
Single hull tanker phase out (Colin Cridland)
Ocean hull claims statistics (Astrid Seltmann)
US tank vessel market (Bill Ebersold)
US Domestic and Foreign Waterborne Container Traffic (David Penick)
A marine geographical information system (Terry Ganton)
Policy review
Canadian shipping and ports policy review (Philip Davies)
Dutch policy review (Frans Waals)
Liner shipping capacity (Mike Fusillo)
Seafarer statistics
Nautical education in Europe (Frans Waals)
UK Seafarers (Alan Brown)
Port statistics
Baltic cargo flow statistics (Urszula Kowalczyk)
Economic and financial analysis of port expansion (Carmen Juan)
PortView (Doug Mills & Stephanie Hayes)
Trade flow and transport statistics
Comparative global analysis of shipping patterns and fleet profiles (Wally Mandryk)
Dry Bulk and Tanker Markets in China (Colin Cridland)
GIS Network Generated US to World Commodity Ton Miles (David Penick)
Reconciling vessel capacity and trade demand statistics (Haakon Lindstad)
Marine movements of logs on British Columbian coast (Philip Davies)
Other papers
Standard Ship Measures (Christopher Palsson
Marad Cruise passenger statistics (Bill Ebersold)
New ownership structures (Peter Malpas)
MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE IMSF STEERING GROUP HELD AT THE OFFICES OF THE CHAMBER OF SHIPPING OF BRITISH
COLUMBIA, VANCOUVER, 17TH MAY 2004
ATTENDANCE
Mr J Dowden(Chair) - UK Chamber of Shipping
Mr P Malpas (Secretary) - Lloyd's Register - Fairplay Ltd
Mrs M Parker (Membership Secretary) - Lloyd's Register - Fairplay
Mr C Cridland (Observer) - Braemar Seascope Ltd
Mr W Ebersold (Observer) - MARAD, US Dept of Transport
Miss Eva Perez (Observer) - University of Valencia
Apologies:
Mr D O'Keefe (Americas Representative) - Statistics Canada
Mr A Veenstra (European Representative) - Erasmus University
1. Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Minutes of the 2003 conference were agreed and duly signed by the Chairman.
2. Archiving of Conference Presentations & Papers
Members may recall reference in the last minutes to Albert Veenstra's idea that the significant achievements of the IMSF over the last 30 years should be documented and published as record of fact, in a book format. Unfortunately this initiative had not progressed due to cost estimations which showed that the publication could not be viable on a commercial basis and no funding to cover the production costs had been found. However the matter was once again discussed in some detail as it was thought the idea had significant merit and many advantages. Therefore other formats and concepts were considered and examined.
It was agreed that the most effective method, in terms of costs, effort and accessibility would be to present suitable historic papers on the IMSF website. It was felt that as papers had been presented at IMSF conferences, then it was appropriate for the website to reflect the umbrella status of the Forum. The Chairman and Secretary would be responsible for sourcing and selecting the relevant papers. The list of available and chosen papers would be provided to Albert Veenstra who would be asked to seek permission from authors for permission to put the papers on the website. It was acknowledged that the Intellectual Property Rights will remain with the author.
Once approval had been obtained from the authors, the papers would be sent to MARAD for scanning as most historic papers are expected to be available in hard copy format only. The scanned papers would then be placed on the website in a logical grouping.
3. Asia Representative Situation
The appointment of Regional Secretaries still proved to be advantageous although concern was once again expressed at the vacant position for the Far East. Possible contacts with Asia previously identified had either moved onto other regions or had not materialised into suitable links. Whilst it was felt that expansion and awareness of the IMSF in the Far East was desirable for the Forum to have global credibility, it was noted that the successes of the Forum over its 30 years of existence had been achieved without representation from Asia. Therefore the position would remain vacant and opportunities sought to identify a suitable representative as and when they were presented. The Steering Group recognised that regular attendance from a delegate in this region was required before appointment was possible.
Eva Perez mentioned that she had some contacts in Hong Kong which would hopefully be better established for the 2006 conference. Her contacts are more in South America.
A possible contact for assistance was identified as Sally Wolf, Secretary of the PR Committee at Intertanko, Colin Cridland offered to draft an introduction letter For the Chairman to send.
4. North America Representative Situation
Doug O'Keefe, North America Representative, made his apologies for not being able to attend the conference and explained he had been transferred to a different department within the Canadian Government. He felt it was therefore appropriate to resign from his position as Regional Secretary for North America. The Steering Group noted the positive contribution Doug had made to the profile of the Forum within North America and wished to thank him for his work in regards to this matter.
A replacement Regional Secretary was discussed and the Steering Group noted the excellent support and contribution provided over recent years by the US Army Corps of Engineers; themselves both a regular user and publisher of maritime statistics. The Chairman suggested to the meeting that David Penick, USACE representative at Vancouver, be approached with an invitation for his organisation to take the vacant position.
Subsequent to the Steering Group Meeting, David Penick confirmed that the US Army Corp of Engineers would be delighted to accept this invitation and he himself was nominated to take the position of Regional Secretary. This was acknowledged by the Executive and was confirmed with immediate effect.
5. IMSF Website
Bill Ebersold explained that Gail Perkins had taken over from Louis Effa at MARAD as responsibility for maintenance of the IMSF Website. The contribution made by Louis to create the website was acknowledged by the Steering Group and a dialogue with Gail had already been established with Michelle Parker. Initial indications were promising that the website would be maintained regularly and kept up to date. The Steering Group agreed that ideally, the Forum's website would be better served with it's own web identity rather than as a sub-directory of the MARAD website. However it was also reported that the obvious web addresses (including www.imsf.org) had all been taken by other organisations some years previous.
6. 2005 Conference Situation
At the time of the Steering Group meeting, a venue for the 2005 conference had not been set. However possible offers for hosting by Wartsila in Helsinki, DNV in Oslo and the University of Piraeus in Athens had been made.
Subsequent to this meeting, Vesa-Pekka Virkki of Wartsila Corporation confirmed that his company would be pleased to host the 2005 conference. The normal type of venue was one option although a unique opportunity to host the conference onboard a modern Baltic ferry may be possible due to Wartsila's strong links with a number of ferry operators in the area. The Executive expressed their preference for an afloat conference although this has yet to be confirmed. Exact dates have also to be confirmed although it was agreed that it would take place in the first week of June.
7. 2006 Conference Situation
A kind offer has been made by Eva Perez, representing the Valencia Port Foundation, who are willing to host the 2006 conference in Valencia. The Executive have gratefully accepted this offer. The likely date is expected to be sometime in May although specific dates will be strongly influenced by the vast number of associated events that will take place in Valencia due to the hosting of the America's Cup yachting event.
The date of the next meeting has yet to be confirmed but would be dependent on the dates for the conference, reference item 6.
Peter Malpas, IMSF Secretary - November 2004