1 Preface
Prof. Dr. Manfred Zachcial, Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL)
Dear Guests, Speakers and Participants.
Today, on this 9th December 2008, the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) starts a new series of Maritime Conferences and it is a great honor for my colleagues and me to welcome you to the first event “Trends in Container Shipping” here in the City of Bremen. The World Trade Center enables us to host about 200 conference participants from Germany and abroad and a number of distinguished speakers from Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
In addition to the conference sessions, high-level representatives from the European Commission, the German Ministry of Transport and the Government of Bremen will provide several important highlights.
The Maritime Conference 2008 will start with a salutation speech “Perspectives of Ports in Germany” by Mr. Detthold Aden. The following program is subdivided in 4 sessions:
• World Economy, Trade and Shipping • Vessel Size Development • Implications of Shipping Markets on Ports and Hinterland • Financing and Taxation
These four major sessions and their topics in detail are related to the present situation and the future development in the sector of container shipping. Among other aspects, world container shipping supply and demand constitute the scope of the conference.
Tonight, the first conference day will be followed by a reception in Bremen’s famous historic town hall. In this context let me give thanks to the City of Bremen, which overtook the patronage for the Maritime Conference 2008.
8 Manfred Zachcial
Ladies and Gentleman, I would like to thank all of you for travelling to Bremen and for participating in “Trends in Container Shipping”. We are looking forward to an exciting meeting and hope to be able to offer you a lot of interesting and useful information about the present and prospective situation in international container transport.
Prof. Dr. Manfred Zachcial