Recently, the annual meeting of the Mediterranean Regional Committee of China Classification Society (CCS) was successfully held in Piraeus, Greece. More than 40 representatives from shipping companies, maritime agencies,  and consulting firms, product manufacturers,  financial institutions and  etc. attended the conference.

Mr. Lai Bo, Charg é d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Greece, attended the meeting and delivered a speech, expressing the hope that all parties work together to deepen maritime cooperation between China and Greece.

Mr. George Procopiou, Chairman of the CCS Mediterranean Regional Committee, highly praised the rapid development and industry competitiveness of Chinese manufacturing, and expressed sincere gratitude for CCS’s role as a bridge and link in shipping, shipbuilding, finance, new technology, etc. between China and Greece. He expected that CCS and local clients can continue to strengthen close ties and deepen cooperation for win-win results. 

CCS Vice President Zhao Yan expressed sincere gratitude to the Chairman, embassy, and various committee members for their long-term support and trust in CCS. In the context of accelerating green, low-carbon and digital transformation of the global shipping industry, CCS is willing to work hand in hand with the Greek shipping industry to jointly embrace progress and challenges.

Mr. Hong Bo, General Manager of CCS Classed Ship in Service Department, made an CCS annual development report to introduce the overall development, PSC performance, and green research achievements of CCS in the past year. He also shared the worldwide distribution of alternative fuel refueling, as well as the concerns  and solutions for the application of carbon capture technology on ships. Mr. Zhu Jie, the ship type expert from CCS Business Development Department, gave a special report on the production capacity of China’s shipbuilding industry concerned by the ship owners. In the report, the current situations, including capacity of China’s shipbuilding industry, distribution of advantageous shipyards under different ship types and green technologies applied onboard,  and the recent capacity expansion of Chinese shipyards   were analyzed in general. 

During the discussion session, the attending representatives had in-depth exchanges and discussions on hot issues, such as sustainable development of new shipbuilding industry, pathways of shipping greenhouse gas emission reduction, and selection of alternative fuels and supplier distribution, cooperation  of carbon capture project, financing experience in shipping between China and Greece.

The convening of this conference has further strengthened the communication and exchange between the Chinese and Greek shipping industries in technological innovation, industrial development, promoted deep cooperation between the two sides in key areas including green and low-carbon, digitalization, and shipbuilding, etc. to jointly contribute wisdom and strength to building a safe, green, and sustainable global shipping system.