June has been filled with various activities and releases. Most notably, the International Chamber of Shipping had been working towards our Annual General Meeting and Shaping the Future of Shipping Summit, which took place at the historic Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome, Italy. During the Annual General Meeting on the 22 June, the ICS Board unanimously elected John Denholm CBE as the new Chairman of ICS. He succeeds Emanuele Grimaldi who completed four years as Chairman and has led the organisation through global volatility and uncertainty. ICS has produced a new video introducing John Denholm, which can be found here. Alternatively, the press release on John Denholm’s election can be read  here.

The Summit took place on the 23 June, where we launched our Annual ICS Maritime Barometer Report 2025-2026. The Barometer is a data-driven report, formed of survey responses from C-Suite decision-makers from across the industry, nearly 53% of whom are shipowners and 39% ship managers. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how this resilient sector is evolving to maintain world trade in an increasingly complex and uncertain environment. The report reveals an industry adapting to an increasingly complex operating environment shaped by geopolitical instability, regulatory uncertainty, and economic volatility. The full report can be read here, or to see the highlights, our summary document can be found here.

However, the Barometer was not the only report keeping our team busy this month. At the beginning of June, our Technical Director Chris Waddington worked alongside Lloyd’s Register to release the ‘On Board Carbon Capture and Storage Review Report.’ This report follows our On board Carbon Capture and Storage Webinar from May, commissioned to Lloyd’s Register Advisory, exploring the technical feasibility of OCCS and how commercial diffusion depends on solving three interlocking gaps: ship integration, carbon disposal infrastructure, and regulatory/accounting certainty.

We additionally commissioned a separate report to the European Shipowners | ECSA, titledAssessing global standards for ship recycling: Gap analysis of the Hong Kong Convention and EU Ship Recycling RegulationThe objective of this report is to identify and analyse key areas where the HKC and the EU SSR diverge. To do this, the report examines the legal texts of both frameworks, together with the corresponding IMO and EU guidelines and secondary legislation. Several recommendations to narrow the gaps between the frameworks are also given.

Finally, alongside BIMCO, we launched the Seafarer Workforce Report 2026 on the Day of the Seafarer (25 June). This report is published every five years and provides a comprehensive overview of the supply and demand balance for STCW certified seafarers. The report estimates that 2.57 million seafarers currently serve the fleet, operating 85,148 merchant ships around the globe, demonstrating their crucial role to our industry. Since the previous 2021 report, demand for STCW certified seafarers has increased by 35% driven by both the expansion of the global merchant fleet and the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. To view the executive summary for this report, please click here. To access the full report, please visit here.

Also, on Day of the Seafarer, we released a statement outlining ten key policy focus areas to highlight to decision-makers in order to recognise seafarers as an essential component to socio-economic global stability. These have been divided into two categories, the first being to promote the factors that continue to positively shape the seafarer employment landscape. The second category of policies identifies the areas where further action is urgently required through strengthened cooperation between industry, unions, governments and intergovernmental organisations. This statement honours our seafarers whilst also commemorating the 20^th anniversary of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC). To read more about this statement, you can see our  news piece or a blog post from our Director of Employment Affairs, Helio Vicente.

In other current affairs, ICS issued a statement in response to the Oman Notice to Mariners and International Maritime Organization’s Evacuation Plan. The statement emphasizes that “the priority remains the safe evacuation of the 11,000 seafarers who have been stranded in the region since the end of February.” We further state “The IMO evacuation plan is a welcome development to delivering this coordination and restoring freedom of navigation. It is vital this plan works in harmony, rather than conflicting, with existing mechanisms.” Read the full statement here.

Although our Shaping the Future of Shipping event was the primary focus for ICS, we were also involved in a multitude of other events. Firstly, we hosted a webinar on the ‘Maritime Applications for Batteries’ on the 5 June. This webinar discussed the current state of battery-electric propulsion in the maritime sector, with our panel including Head of R&D, Rauma Marine Constructions, Teemu Kyläkallio, Principal of Business Development at The Faraday Institution, Jonathan Leong, Principal Marine Director at ICS, John Stawpert, and CEO of Wightlink Katy Taylor, with CEO and Founder of Intent Communications, Namrata Nadkarni moderating. To read the summary of this webinar, please visit here.

Additionally, a few of our secretariat attended Posidonia at the beginning of the month. ICS Secretary General, Thomas Kazakos, gave an address at Xinde Marine Forum under the theme ‘Co-opetition & Symbiosis: The Long-Termism of Shipping.’ Our Chief Finance and Commercial Officer Elliott Adams met with various Flag State Administrations and key stakeholders to discuss the ISF Verify initiative – a cloud-based platform designed to support the global transition from paper to digital seafarer certificates and connect national seafarer databases. Later in the month, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Navigation, Communication & Search and Rescue (NCSR 13) sub-committee commenced, where our Nautical Director Gregor Stevens led the marine team in their contributions. The agenda included changes to IMO routeing such as Traffic separation schemes (TSS), development of onboard equipment such as ECDIS and VDES, and a number of other important proposals.

As I wrap up this lengthy re-cap of ICS’ June activities, I would like to officially welcome The Bulgarian Shipowners Association (BSA) as an Affiliate National Association Member. The association strongly focuses on safe and quality shipping as well as a focus on environmental compliance, regularly sharing international and national best operational practices for shipping in the area. To read the full press release, please visit here.