At the Cyprus Shipping Chamber (CSC) AGM held in April this year Mr Themis Papadopoulos, our CEO, was elected as President for the next two years. Some of you may remember that the first President of the CSC in 1989 was Mr Adonis Papadopoulos, Chairman of the Interorient group of companies.
The CSC is the trade association of the shipping industry in Cyprus. It currently has some 171 member companies who collectively control 2200 ocean going vessels of 49 million gross tons with around 55,000 seafarers serving on them. It is currently one of the largest shipping associations in the world.

The CSC was first established in January 1989, with originally seventeen founding members of which Interorient was one. The Chamber today comprises of most of the major ship owning, ship management, chartering and shipping related companies based in Cyprus, together with several overseas members from the industry.

The main purpose of the Chamber is:
„…promoting the interests of Cyprus Shipping and furthering the reputation of the Cyprus flag, whilst promoting and protecting the interests of its Members both nationally and internationally…“

As such, the Chamber acts as a lobbying group for the promotion and safeguarding of the legitimate interests of its professional member companies, at a national level through its close relations with the Cyprus Government and Parliament, as well as at an international level though its membership of various regional and international ship owners’ associations. The CSC is an active member of the International Chamber of Shipping and the European Community Ship owners‘ Association, as well as several other organisations.

The CSC is active in many areas to support Cyprus shipping, none more so than its educational activities. In close co-operation with the Cyprus Branch of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, the Cyprus Shipping Chamber assists in the administration of the Understanding Shipping course which is an annual introductory self-study course for those new to the shipping industry and which has been running since 2000. The course has been customised to meet the particular requirements of the local shipping industry.

Another activity is aimed at promoting shipping, and careers in shipping, to school children through the organisation of presentations, visits to shipping companies and vessels. A specific project is the Adopt-a-Ship programme which is organised alongside the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association (CYMEPA). The aim of the programme is to assign to a number of primary schools’ classrooms particular vessels for email communication between the children and the masters and crew of the vessels. A world map is provided to all classes participating in the programme in order to keep track of the vessel’s voyage. This has proven to be a hugely popular and successful programme.

The CSC is active in arranging a number of social events during the year of which many are also used to raise funds for charity. Members’ meetings are held on a monthly basis with guest presenters talking on topical and professional subjects of interest to the local shipping industry.