10th Naftemporiki Shipping Conference
On 20 May 2026, IGMAR Group participated as Gold Sponsor of the 10th Naftemporiki Shipping Conference, held under the title "Shipping Between Global Powers" at the Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens. The conference brought together leading figures from the Greek and international shipping community, political leadership, diplomacy, the banking sector, and the global maritime market for a full day of discussion on the forces reshaping the industry.
Now in its tenth year, the Naftemporiki Shipping Conference has established itself as one of the most significant forums for strategic dialogue on shipping, energy, and geopolitics in Greece. The 2026 edition lived up to that standing. The programme covered six thematic sessions addressing the full range of pressures currently acting on the maritime industry: the role of ports, shipbuilding, and logistics in the new geoeconomic order; Greece's position as an energy hub; tanker market volatility and geopolitical risk; decarbonisation and the realities of green transition; dry bulk market dynamics; and the broader question of shipping between competing global powers.
The themes of the conference were not abstract. They described conditions that the maritime industry is operating under right now. Geopolitical instability, shifting trade routes, the Red Sea situation, the energy transition, and the growing strategic importance of maritime infrastructure are all variables that every company operating in this space has to account for in its planning. A conference that places all of these on the table simultaneously, with the calibre of speakers that the Naftemporiki Shipping Conference attracts, is where that planning has to be informed.
The session on Ports, Shipbuilding and Logistics was particularly relevant to IGMAR Group's position in the market. The discussion confirmed what the industry already understands: that port and shipyard infrastructure is no longer simply a commercial asset. It is a strategic one. As global supply chains reconfigure and the Eastern Mediterranean reasserts its importance as a transit and services hub, the facilities available in Greek waters become part of a larger picture. IGMAR Shipyards operates across two sites in Salamina and Perama, with a combined capacity that places the Group among the most comprehensively equipped maritime service providers in the region. That infrastructure, and the expertise behind it, is what allows Greece to maintain a competitive position in ship repair and conversion at a moment when the industry is under significant pressure to adapt.
Greece's role as an energy hub was another thread that ran through the conference. The shift in European energy supply lines following recent geopolitical events has increased the strategic weight of the Eastern Mediterranean, and with it the importance of the maritime services sector that supports the vessels moving through it. LNG carriers, tankers, and the full range of support vessels require the kind of technical capability that IGMAR Group provides. Being positioned in Piraeus, at the centre of one of the world's most active shipping clusters, is not incidental to the Group's ability to serve this market. It is the foundation of it.
Decarbonisation occupied a significant part of the conference programme, and the framing of the relevant session, "No More Illusions", reflected the mood of an industry that has moved past aspirational timelines and is now working through what the transition actually requires. For shipyards, this means investment in the technical capability to handle vessels burning alternative fuels, modifications to existing tonnage, and the conversion and refit work that will accompany the fleet's gradual transition. IGMAR Shipyards is positioned to be part of that process, with the in-house engineering and naval architecture capability to take on the technical complexity that decarbonisation brings to the drydock.
IGMAR Group's participation as Gold Sponsor of the 10th Naftemporiki Shipping Conference reflects the Group's commitment to remaining at the centre of the conversations that shape the industry it operates in. The questions raised at the conference, about geopolitics, energy, infrastructure, and the pace of transition, are the same questions that inform how IGMAR Group develops its facilities, trains its workforce, and positions itself to serve the shipping community over the next decade. Salamina and Perama are not only yards. They are IGMAR Group's answer to what the industry needs from a maritime services partner built for the conditions that lie ahead.