2008 Retrospective

The 2008 Turkish Shipping Summit took place on November 25th 2008 in the sumptuous surroundings of the Four Seasons Hotel, Istanbul at the Bosphorus, attracting over 170 delegates from 20 countries.

The Welcome Reception & Gala Dinner hosted by Tradewinds & Seatrade on the evening before the summit provided delegates and speakers a great chance to meet and network before the conference.

The morning part of the conference featured key speakers such as Nicholas Fistes of Intertanko, Metin Kalkavan, of the Turkish Chamber of Shipping, Suay Umut of Dunya Shipping Group and Erhan Bayraktar of Bayraktar Group. The speeches were followed by the lively discussion, with numerous questions from the floor directed to the leaders of Turkish shipping. Proceedings concluded with a spontaneous press conference attended by leading Turkish newspapers and TV channels.

The conference continued with the Money & Ships session, chaired by Harry Theochari of Norton Rose, focusing on the subjects of finance for the Turkish shipowners and how shipowners can control costs in a falling market.

Following a lavish lunch, the conference turned the spotlight on the shipbuilding matters, with the session’s chairman, William J. Sember of ABS appraising the state of the market, followed by a number of interesting speeches and a panel discussion and questions from the audience about Turkish Shipbuilding’s future and expansion possibilities.