2004 IMPA Conference
OPENING REMARKS
Dr Peter M Swift, Managing Director, INTERTANKO
INTERTANKO (The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners) and IMPA (The International Marine Purchasing Association), as leading shipping associations, share many of the same objectives including the promotion of the highest professional standards within our respective industries.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning.
Thank you for inviting me to speak today. It is a great pleasure to be with you.
Your association (IMPA) and INTERTANKO, the Association I represent – have much in common, not least because your membership includes many tanker companies and manufacturers who are either full or associate members of my Association.
INTERTANKO - the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners - represents the majority of the tanker industry; an industry that transports by sea more than 60% of all the oil and oil products that our society consumes, and also a similar percentage of chemicals. We do this day in - day out, efficiently, reliably and cost effectively. We are all beneficiaries – since the maritime transportation of crude oil accounts for less than 1p per litre of the pump price of petrol in this country.
Of course my members have some pretty demanding customers, - the oil companies and the oil traders, often some of the largest companies in the world. No doubt your customers, -including the tanker owners, - are equally demanding.
Naturally, in any free market we all expect to be subject to tough, commercial pressure and terms. And as service providers we understand that our customers have the right to expect the very best in terms of the quality of our services and the products we supply, and equally importantly in the integrity, standards and transparency of all our practices.
Therefore, as representative organizations, IMPA and INTERTANKO must continue to promote and encourage the very highest levels of professional standards in our respective businesses.
All the clichés about the one rotten apple spoiling the whole barrel are absolutely valid for our industries. Without doubt, it is incumbent not only on our associations but on our responsible members to ensure that we adopt a policy of zero tolerance for ANY substandard elements or practices within either of our industries.
Over many years INTERTANKO has championed the concept of a maritime chain of responsibility, which recognizes the interdependence of the many links in the shipping world and the reliance that shipowners place on the competence and integrity of their partners from ship construction, through management and operation, to ship repair and eventually ship recycling. This interdependency and the quality of the relationships between the various partners are key components in ensuring that we meet the goals that we set ourselves.
INTERTANKO’s members are therefore dependent upon the efficiency of IMPA’s members and the quality of their services in order to achieve the shipowners’ goal of safe, secure and economic delivery of our cargoes to the end users.
It is interesting to read in your literature and in your brochures that IMPA routinely urges a collaborative rather than a combative relationship between purchasers and suppliers. The idea of greater co-operation and understanding between all of the parties in the maritime chain can never be encouraged enough.
Similarly, I note that the reputations of our respective industries are important to both of us, and I am sure that, as committed and responsible associations, we both share a common drive to ensure the highest standards in all that we do.
The shipping industry and the marine purchasing and supply industries (also) have much more in common. We are mostly engaged in international trade and therefore in order to operate successfully we require – we might reasonably say we demand - :
· a level playing field,
· consistency in international regulation and legislation, and the elimination of divisive local and national rules,
· the dismantling of artificial trade barriers, and
· a consistency in the approach of national governments to our industries.
We are both generally “invisible” industries, with virtually no public or political awareness of society’s dependence on the daily services that we provide, nor of the effective and reliable manner in which we go about our business. It is only on the rare occasion that something goes wrong that we make the headlines and stir public and political interest – and unfortunately this general lack of awareness and understanding often results in rash new, knee-jerk, legislation or other counterproductive measures. Frequently, the hostility of governments and public authorities seems disproportionate given that the shipping industry is already highly regulated, has a safety record envied by many shore-based transport sectors and is the most environmentally friendly form of commercial transport.
Despite our low profile, we should nevertheless hope that we always have the support of governments and politicians, and whenever possible should try to ensure that we involve them more.
Society perhaps needs reminding that the overwhelming majority of the 40,000 plus ships that ply the world's oceans are highly sophisticated vehicles capable of operating efficiently and independently in some of the world's harshest environments - not the 'unreliable rust buckets' that the headline writers, and regrettably some politicians, would have the public believe. We should not need to remind them that international trade in essential commodities is totally reliant on a healthy shipping industry.
We should therefore take whatever opportunity arises to involve politicians, administrators and the general media in our activities, and encourage them to see our ships, understand our businesses and attend events such as this Conference and Exhibition.
I am sure that they would take away a much greater appreciation of our contributions to society and of the way that we meet the challenges before us.
We need our political partners - as one of many stakeholders – to help spread the message, for they have an essential role to play in the promotion and the advocacy of the maritime industries and in ensuring free markets and level playing fields for us to be able to compete fairly, in the international arenas.
Equally, they, as well as all of us, need to feel assured that they can rely on the integrity and the professionalism of the companies represented here today, and by the IMPA membership at large – as well of course as those in INTERTANKO.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It has been a great privilege to have been invited here this morning and to have had this opportunity to say a few words on behalf of some of IMPA’s important customers.
If this were a dinner, the toast would be “to IMPA and to your members”.
It is not, but on behalf of all of your customers and guests, I wish you a very successful Conference and Exhibition.
THANK YOU.
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