Webinar: AN ANNUAL “STATE OF PORTS” INDUSTRY REPORT : IAPH 2025 WORLD PORTS TRACKER BRIEFING ON SUSTAINABILITY AND MARKET TRENDS by Mercator Media

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About This Webinar

This webinar, which is open to all, will offer an in-depth analysis of the recent, comprehensive, IAPH global ports membership survey.

The authors of this new, upgraded version of the IAPH World Ports Tracker are the renowned maritime economists Professor Theo Notteboom and Professor Thanos Pallis. Introduced by IAPH managing director Partrick Verhoeven and interviewed by IAPH communications director Victor Shieh, Thanos and Theo will provide attendees with key highlights from this global survey and the report they have compiled for the membership.

You will gain insights from and priorities for ports in all the areas of interest of the IAPH World Ports Sustainability Program – on trends and developments in Climate and Energy , Digitalization, Infrastructure, Health Safety and Security, Environmental Care and Community Building.

You will also get a briefing from Theo and Thanos on the market outlook as seen through the eyes of ports for the coming year. The survey data results from the ports have also been supplemented with data from the S&P Global Port Performance Program as well as the MDS Transmodal and UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Liner Shipping Connectivity Index.

This new, upgraded, annual version of the World Ports Tracker, which has engaged directly with over eighty members of IAPH across its six regions, aims to monitor and evaluate critical developments in the global port industry as they evolve over time.

The publishing of the summary of the report will be made available to registered attendees.

Photo credit: Petr Svec/Dreamstime

Presenters

Thanos Pallis

Professor in Port & Maritime Economics and Policy - Department of Maritime Studies - University of Piraeus, Greece

Thanos Pallis is Professor in port and maritime economics and policy at the Department of Port Management and Shipping, at the University of Piraeus, Greece, and director of the University’s Laboratory for Integrated Port Economy. He is co-director of Porteconomics.eu, immediate past president of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), and a member of the IAPH Risk and Resilience Committee and the IAPH Cruise Committee.

Theo Notteboom

Chair Professor ‘North Sea Port’ - Maritime Institute of Ghent University

Theo Notteboom is Professor of port and maritime economics. He is Chair Professor North Sea Port at the Maritime Institute of Ghent University, and a Professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Antwerp and Antwerp Maritime Academy. He is co-director of Porteconomics.eu, past president and vice-president of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), and a member of the IAPH Risk and Resilience Committee.

Patrick Verhoeven

Managing Director IAPH

Patrick Verhoeven is managing director of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH). The organisation represents about 180 ports and some 150 port-related businesses in 85 countries worldwide.

Prior to joining IAPH in 2017, Patrick spent twenty-four years in Brussels representing the interests of shipowners, port authorities, terminal operators and ship agents at EU level. He started his career in 1991 with the Antwerp-based ship agent Grisar & Velge.

From 2019 to 2022, Patrick served on the supervisory board of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority as deputy chairman. Patrick holds a PhD in applied economics and a bachelor’s in law from the University of Antwerp. He is associate professor at the university’s Centre for Maritime and Air Transport Management (C-MAT). Patrick lives in Antwerp with his wife and three children.

Moderator - Victor Shieh

Strategy and Communications Director - IAPH

Victor Shieh is IAPH’s Strategy and Communications Director, having commenced work for IAPH as Communications Partner for its World Ports Sustainability Program which launched in 2018.

Victor has been involved in the maritime and logistics industry since he graduated in BCom from The University of Birmingham, beginning his career as a management trainee of the National Freight Consortium in the UK before leaving for Spain. There he commercially managed an enterprise serving Iberian ports and logistics operations with real-time radio data solutions.

He then moved to Belgium in 1998 where he was European Business Unit Manager for voice-based logistics data systems. He then joined Safmarine Container Lines as Global PR and Communications Executive , a Maersk subsidiary with roots in Africa.

Following ten years in the role, Victor set up his own communications agency, advising shipowners, offshore companies, ports, terminal operators, supply chain logistics companies, and forwarders on all aspects of corporate communications.