CHARTING A SMART COURSE FORWARD FOR GREEK SHIPPING

To succeed you must survive until you get lucky

Quarterly and annual plans and decisions are no longer feasible in a time of AI when continuous data update is available – data must be leveraged to make weekly and monthly decisions

We had a tremendous day at our 27th Marine Money Greece conference on 16th October 2025 at the fabulous venue Asteria Glyfada (DOMUS). It was a full room with over 300 delegates and speakers with about one quarter travelling in from 19 countries.

The quality content during the discussions in the conference room was matched by the enthusiastic networking outside.

And the meeting room area and networking areas at DOMUS worked perfectly to encourage debate, private meetings and casual drinks.

In the meantime some of the takeaways from the conference include:

• Trade is travelling more than ever even as US tariffs reach a high not seen since the Great Depression

• A necessary response to the new trade disruptions are rearrange, ramp-up, replace and reduce

• There is a trend for there to be more trade between geopolitical allies and this is changing the geographical route of some trades

• Global energy consumption is expected to shift to 33% to 42% electricity by 2050 but how will this electricity be produced - fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear and more

• Fossil fuels, whatever may be the dream case scenario, will remain important well beyond 2025

• Sustainable fuel demand will grow 400% by 2050 to 600 million tons per year

• All owners must embed global trade scenarios in their business planning

• You must define a fleet composition and deployment strategy for the years ahead

• Strategic partnerships are crucial going forward to hedge uncertainty

• And all companies, and especially bigger companies, must develop capabilities to leverage big data and AI

• The dollar weakness has helped some trade to rebound

• With so much current confusion, for tramp operators at least, short term charters are preferred

• Whatever happens you cannot exclude China from shipping since it is dominant in ownership, shipbuilding and trade. There are too many misconceptions in the market about a retreat from shipping by China.

• Biggest challenges currently are the IMO decision, trade turmoil and longer term which alternative fuels and how. The biggest opportunity is technology. The key is to handle the former and to implement the latter.

• Success in today’s challenging market means commercial and financial flexibility, keeping a low base line cost and having a strong balance sheet.

• As a company grows from M&A or from fleet acquisitions it has growing pains and new systems must be put in place

• Becoming bigger must not cause a company to lose its entrepreneurial spirit in decision making

• To succeed you must survive until you get lucky

• It is not enough just to have the data, you must have the ability to analyse the data and then to implement decisions based on this

• Quarterly and annual plans and decisions are no longer feasible in a time of AI when continuous data update is available – data must be leveraged to make weekly and monthly decisions

• Expectations for technology are at an all time high Greek shipping remains in a good place and we had plenty advise and debate about CHARTING A SMART COURSE FORWARD FOR GREEK SHIPPING. Over 300 shipping executives spent the day hearing debate, talking, laughing and networking. This year is exciting as is every year in shipping.

Georgia Ermidi editor/Journalist efoplistesnews.gr Isabella Schidrich Managing Director at NASDAQ

Kevin Oates Head of Asia Marine Money και Παναγιώτης Τσάκος

Georgia Ermidi editor/journalist efoplistesnews.gr

Από αριστερά: Διαμαντής Πατέρας (Contships), Ντίνος Πετρόπουλος, Νικόλας Πατέρας (Contships), Γιάννης Χατζηπατέρας (Dorian LPG), Γιώργος Πατέρας (Contships), και Φάνης Μουστακάτος (Εθνική Τράπεζα)