The innovative Belgian port city of Antwerp has won the right to host the influential annual summit of the Global Maritime Forum in the autumn of 2025.
The bid was led by CMB.Tech chief executive Alex Saverys who stepped in after plans to take the event to a rival global shipping hub were paused due to organisational complications.
Saverys explained: “It’s a privilege that we can host the Global Maritime Forum next year in what we believe is the beating heart of maritime Europe.
“I know that the Dutch will say differently, and the Germans will say differently, and our British friends will say differently, and even our Greek friends will say differently!” Saverys joked to delegates at the gala dinner to mark this year’s forum summit in Tokyo’s Palace Hotel.
“But, dear friends, Antwerp next year will be about showing to all of you that everything we have been discussing [at the Global Maritime Forum] for the last seven years can turn into reality.”
And to applause he added that “perhaps the biggest advantage of Antwerp is that we have the best beer and chocolate in the world!”
Saverys thinks Antwerp can show shipping leaders the practical impact of investment to develop green marine fuel infrastructure and operations.
Antwerp has embraced the energy transition and is already a multi-fuel port providing LNG, methanol and shore power, alongside traditional bunker fuels.
It is also positioning itself as a hydrogen production and trading hub, and last year took delivery of the world’s first hydrogen-powered harbour tug built by CMB.Tech.
And its port authority building, completed in 2016, is a striking design by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.
In 2022, the municipally-controlled Belgian port authorities of Antwerp and Bruges took the radical decision to merge, putting behind them centuries of rivalry.
Saverys was an early convert to future fuels, announcing the roll-out of a trial of hydrogen in 2018, just before the first Global Maritime Forum annual summit outside Denmark in Hong Kong.
Hydrogen in spotlight
Next year, he hopes to put on show Antwerp’s alternative fuel-powered craft with a sail-by of the forum’s likely waterfront venue.
Talking of the green transition, Saverys said: “I want to see — and a lot of European companies want to see — that what we are discussing is possible.
“They say ‘seeing is believing’. I truly hope that next year you will see that everything we are discussing on decarbonisation, on digitalisation, is possible, and that you will eventually believe it.”
Saverys recently emerged from a bitter takeover battle with John Fredriksen over tanker company Euronav, which has now been reborn as CMB.Tech, although some dissident shareholders continue to campaign that the sale terms were unfair.
Randy Chen, vice chairman of Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines and a director of the forum, said: “Alexander is a great example of someone in the shipping community who believes in where we are heading as an industry, and also placing tangible bets, not just in terms of ships that are ammonia powered.
“So those of you who think that ammonia [as a fuel] is not possible, I think Alexander will tell you otherwise.”
Saverys also wants Antwerp to engage with European Commission policymakers to build more understanding and trust with industry.
He said: “The theme for Antwerp will also definitely be what the European Commission has done with regard to shipping. We are literally a stone’s throw away from Brussels.
“We will invite our Brussels politicians to come and engage with you on the good and the bad they have done. I am convinced we are going to have a very interesting dialogue with our EU Commission.”
Saverys also wants to use Antwerp’s historic trading links with Africa to raise awareness of the continent’s potential.
He said: “We see Antwerp in Europe as a gateway to Africa. Our African neighbours are the future of shipping” with the population expected to grow by one billion in the coming decades.
“More importantly, we cannot do what we are discussing here today without the people of Africa, the companies in Africa,” Saverys said.
CMB.Tech is investing in a solar-powered green hydrogen plant in Namibia.
