Page 54 - Layout 1

Talking Point

Talks exclusively to:

Peter Hinchliffe

Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping

worked for 20 years in the submarine

service, including five years in command
of three different submarines.

Having served a long career at sea
and worked at the International

Chamber of Shipping (ICS) for over a
decade, Mr Hinchliffe has seen many

recurring trends in the maritime world –

but since becoming Secretary General of
the ICS in 2010, his main concerns are

of a regulatory manner: “We are
concerned with the weight and cost of

upcoming regulations, particularly in
environmental terms. The Ballast Water

Convention, fuel changes under
MARPOL Annexe 6, the potential or

discussion on increasing the amount of
regulations on fuel consumption and

efficiency – this has the potential to be
expensive. We are also concerned over

potential discussions regarding

overcapacity, depressed freight rates –
these are all broad issues which go

together because they are concerned
with increasing costs and with difficulties

in making money out of shipping at
this time.”

But when debating such issues, how
are Mr Hinchliffe and his team able to
I
reconcile global and local perspectives?
As he explained, this can be a tricky task:

“ICS provides a global view of the

t’s clear that even from a young age was seduced by the Royal Navy. I left industry and it is absolutely clear
Peter Hinchliffe was a strong-minded school deciding to go straight into the that bringing out new ships and

individual, having chosen a life at sea Navy, much to my teachers’ disgust as I commissioning them at this time doesn’t
when he was just a boy. “I was brought had turned down places at university to make a lot of sense as we would like to

up in Merseyside and when I was eight do this,” Mr Hinchliffe said, adding that reduce the size of the global fleet. That’s
years old, I decided to go to sea. I was he entered the Navy under an academic the global view but when you drill down

very excited by this decision at such a scheme and obtained a degree in into the view from individual companies,
young age but later, during sixth form, I
Systems and Management. He then
it’s a completely different picture.

52 The SHIP Supplier Issue 60 2014