The event was held at BEC from 27th to 31st March
Interaction between the naval, fisheries, port and marine energy sectors represents a great opportunity, as became apparent at the World Maritime Week throughout the week in its three main areas: conference, B2B interview programme and exhibition area. A total of 1747 professionals participated in them at Bilbao Exhibition Centre to discover the last technology breakthroughs and to seek new business opportunities in the so-called “blue economy” or the sea industries, which currently move €275,000 million in the European Union.
During the opening of World Maritime Week, the President of the Basque Government, Iñigo Urkullu, highlighted the importance of this new initiative, due to its integration role in four strategic sectors. “We join in to gain international repercussion for all of them. In the Basque Country, we have the entire value chain to lead projects in the global maritime sector: industrial capacity, technology and manufacture of components”. The President of the Spanish Maritime Cluster, Alejandro Aznar, also wanted to highlight the suitability of holding an event of these characteristics during his speech in the opening plenary session. “Having a forum where all of the sectors can establish multi-sectorial collaboration at the highest level is a major milestone”, he assured.
A total of 75 exhibitors participated in the exhibition area, including leading shipbuilders, such as La Naval, Zamakona, Murueta, Balenciaga, Navantia, Armon, Gondan or Atlanticeagle Shipbuilding and other leading companies in propulsion, electronics, components and maritime services from the four integrated sectors. In the conference part, around 100 first rate experts from 16 countries showed their specialised vision of different aspects of current maritime issues. The evaluation of around 600 visitors to the different sessions has been very positive. The Sinaval programme focused on “Reducing the ecological footprint”, the “View of charterers”, “Opportunities in the international military market” and the “Challenges of the Basque maritime industry and the new strategic plan for 2017-2020”. The Eurofishing block was devoted to “Tuna freezing vessels” and “Fishing of the future”, whilst Futureport had a workshop on “Infrastructures and equipment for a more sustainable maritime and port industry”. Two technical conferences on “Offshore Wind Power” and “Ocean Energies” featured in the Marine Energy Week programme.
Scheduled business meetings, one of the keys to success
The B2B programmes of scheduled agendas between exhibitors and purchasers was undoubtedly one of the strategic elements of World Maritime Week. At Sinaval, the encounter brought together a total of 31 shipping and shipbuilding companies, as well as engineering firms from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Iran, France, Belgium, Morocco, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, The Netherlands and Vietnam.
“I am looking for innovative products, and here I have found first rate solutions, such as those offered by Igus or Roxtec; the main challenges of my work are efficiency and cost cutting and to do so, the key lies in innovation and synergies between different sectors. The list of suppliers with which I had meetings has been extremely interesting and very different to what is common in other programmes; over 80% of the companies were new to me, probably because they move in more local circles”, said John Hung, Global Category Manager of BP International.
Chriso Eviripidou, Supply Manager for the Cypriot shipowner, Safebulkers Management, took away a positive impression of the meetings. “I regularly take part in this type of programmes because we have 41 bulk vessels travelling all over the world and I need to be able to turn to different suppliers in different countries. I had 10 interviews and the companies I met were extremely valid to deal with any eventuality in terms of repairs, spare parts, etc.”, he explained.
In parallel, the social agenda was the unifying element of the event. Among other important events, the award ceremony for the FINE 2017 Prizes was held on Tuesday night. These awards recognised the efforts of professionals from the maritime sector during a gala in which seven statuettes were awarded: outstanding ship, outstanding shipyard, outstanding shipowner, outstanding maritime engineering project, outstanding institution, outstanding professional and honorary lifetime achievement award. Around 300 professionals from the international maritime sector attended the award ceremony.
In the “Outstanding Ship” category, the winner was Texelstroom, by Construcciones Navales del Norte (La Naval). The prize for the “Outstanding Shipyard” category went to Construcciones Navales Paulino Freire; that of “Outstanding Shipowner” went to the Suardiaz Group; Sistema Foran by Sener was the “Outstanding maritime engineering project” and the “Outstanding Institution” went to Salvamento Marítimo. Juan Manuel Arana, President of Naviera Murueta received the ‘Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award’ and Manuel Moreu, Director of Seaplace, collected his prize as ‘Outstanding Professional’.
An important announcement: WindEurope 2019 will be held at BEC
During the Marine Energy Week, an important announcement was made. Taking advantage of his participation in the first day of the conference, Giles Dickson, CEO of the European Wind Energy Association, announced that it will hold its “WindEurope Congress & Exhibition” at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre in spring 2019. “We have chosen Bilbao to hold our annual event in 2019 for different reasons, among which because we recognise that the Basque Country has a very important industrial fabric in the wind power sector. The sector’s turnover here, in the European context, currently represents more than 10% of the total, which makes it a very important region”, he explained on evaluating the decision. “WindEurope Congress & Exhibition” is one of the association’s benchmark events, which also regularly organises seminars, workshops and conferences, and it is the most important event in Europe in its speciality, with an average of 10,000 professional visitors from all over the world and over 450 exhibiting companies from 50 countries.
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