Capt. Wei Jia-fu, President & CEO of COSCO Group, honoured with the Seatrade Lifetime Achievement Award

Capt. Wei Jia-fu, President & CEO, COSCO Group was presented with the Seatrade Lifetime Achievement Award (award sponsored by Dalian Port) in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the international shipping industry as an eloquent articulator of the Asian voice in world shipping. Capt. Wei took the company into the Fortune 500 and transformed COSCO into a diversified shipping group, which even in the most serious recession year of 2009, still achieved a profit.

Capt. Wei Jia-fu said, “To me, this Lifetime Achievement award is not an end to my service for our industry, instead, it is just a new beginning from where I have to work even harder to make sure that our shipping industry is safer, cleaner and more efficient.”

The 22nd Seatrade Awards Ceremony Dinner took place last night at London’s Guildhall in the presence of IMO Secretary-General, Efthimios Mitropoulos, Chairman of the panel of judges of the Seatrade Awards. Over 300 members of the maritime community celebrated the outstanding contributions made over the last year for safe, efficient and environmentally friendly shipping. Guest of Honour, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope KCB OBE ADC, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff presented the awards.

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope said, ”These annual Awards bring professionals and specialists from across the global maritime sector together in a common cause. It is an opportunity to look across the industry as a whole in recognising and celebrating innovation and excellence”.

Mohammad Souri, Chairman & Managing Director, NITC was presented with the Seatrade Personality Award for 2010. As a highly respected and experienced member of the global shipping industry he has been the Chairman and Managing Director of NITC for over 25 years guiding his company through a privatisation process and up the ranks to its current position as one of the world’s four largest companies in its sector.

The Seatrade Global Performer 2010 award was presented to Sovcomflot in recognition of its pioneering work with Arctic icebreaking tanker operations. As Russia’s leading shipping company for 20 years Sovcomflot is now one of the world’s five largest tanker companies. Evgeniy Ambrosov, Senior Executive Vice President, Sovcomflot, received the award.

Harry Vafias, Founder & CEO, StealthGas Inc was awarded the Seatrade Young Person in Shipping 2010 Award (award sponsored by Drydocks World) in recognition of his record of achievement in the maritime industry. StealthGas was the first pure gas company floated on the US market, and Vafias, the youngest CEO of a listed shipping company worldwide.

This year a special Seatrade Award was presented to mark the IMO’s Year of the Seafarer. The Award was presented to Michael Grey MBE, in recognition of his strong advocacy of the interests of seafarers in his columns over many years.

IMO Secretary-General, Efthimios Mitropoulos expressed his approval at Seatrade’s choice of award categories that closely reflected the IMO’s own aims and objectives, he said “thanks to Seatrade for adding its weight to the growing momentum of the movement for support of seafarers.”

The Seatrade Awards programme rewards new ideas and concepts that have proved themselves in early operational use, recognising the industry’s efforts in improving maritime standards and awarding those at the forefront of new thinking. The independent judging panel selected the winners of the 2010 awards as follows:

CATEGORY I - SAFETY AT SEA
(Award sponsored by Lloyd’s Register)

Winner:
Honeywell Marine, France
GASBAL DA400

Runners up:
Datema Delfzijl B.V., The Netherlands
ENCTrack distribution system

United Kingdom Maritime Component Command, Bahrain
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organisation

CATEGORY II – PROTECTION OF THE MARINE AND ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
(Award sponsored by ABS)

Winner:
MAN Diesel SE, Germany
VTA (Variable Turbine Area)

Runners up:
Applied Weather Technology, Inc., USA
BonVoyage Marine Voyage Optimization System Version 6.0

Eniram Ltd, Finland
Eniram Dynamic Trimming Assistant (DTA)

CATEGORY III – INNOVATION IN SHIP OPERATIONS
(Award sponsored by Seatrade Asia Week)

Winner:
PSM Instrumentation Ltd, UK
Clearview

Runners up:
Frédéric Wetzel Architecture Agency, France
TRIDOCK Hospital Ship (THS)

Det Norske Veritas AS, Norway
Synchronized ship and port operations (Synchroport)

CATEGORY IV – INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE

Winner:
Hellenic Marine Environment Protection Association (HELMEPA), Greece
Voluntary, refresher training for the Greek Shipping Community

Runners up:
Anglo Eastern Maritime Training, India
Recruitment and training of ship’s crew

MISC Berhad, Malaysia
Sea-going Professionals Development Strategy

In keeping with the non-profit making motives of the Seatrade Awards scheme, Seatrade will make a donation from the proceeds to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and The Mission to Seafarers. The Awards Ceremony dinner was sponsored by Det Norske Veritas and Rolls-Royce.