We were delighted to return to Posidonia for a fully booked keystone conference on managing risk across freight markets at The Margi Hotel in Vougliameni.

You can rewatch the entire Risk Forum here.

The Forum offered insight on dry cargo and tanker market outlooks from leading shipping analysts, alongside updates on benchmark and service changes from Baltic Exchange CEO Mark Jackson.

"It's been fantastic to reconnect with so many attendees at this year's Risk Forum," said Jackson.

"The Baltic Exchange remains at the forefront of bringing together ideas and supporting the maritime community with our new membership structure and services."

You can find out more information about the benefits of becoming a member of the Baltic Exchange here.

In the first half of the Forum, Burak Cetinok, Head of Research at Arrow Shipbroking Group, offered insight on the current state of play.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has materially added to downside risks, with geopolitical uncertainty surging," Cetinok explained as part of his comprehensive analysis.

Anders Liengaard, Director - Liengaard & Roschmann, then provided an overview of benchmarking as a management tool.

"With benchmarking as a management tool, maybe shipowners want to know if their chartering managers are doing a good job. Are you outperforming the index relatively speaking?"

You can watch all of Anders' real-world examples 40 minutes into the seminar.

Peter Stallion, Head of Containers and Air Freight at Freight Investor Services, also discussed container volatility and how to use FFAs to manage freight risk as the first half of the Forum drew to a close.

Read the latest Baltic Exchange column from Peter here: 

After a short break, Martin Crawford-Brunt - Decarbonisation Lead at the Baltic Exchange (CEO, Lookout Maritime), Marc Pauchet - Head of Research at Maersk Broker, Thomas Bracewell - Newbuilding Projects & Decarbonisation lead at Arrow Shipbroking Group and Alessio Sbraga - Partner at HFW, took part in deep dive panel discussion on: CII, EEXI and compliance, fleet dynamics and newbuild/optimisation options, cargo flow changes and influence on market rates, charterparty risks and clauses, as well as third party period risks.

The lively debate was followed by another panel discussion on: ETS in the EU and influence on IMO policy, options for owners, how and when to access carbon markets, offsetting risk strategy and cost allocation, lessons from other markets and voluntary market acceptance.

This final session of the day was led by Nina Zetsche - Director at Clear Blue Markets, Trifon Tsentides - Head of Business Development at Ifchor and Frederic Bouthillier from Vertis Environmental Finance.

"The compliance market is very different and distinct to the voluntary market," said Crawford-Brunt.

"I think everyone agrees that there is a lot of complexity in the compliance market, whereas if you take a step back and look at sustainability - what shareholders, stakeholders and governments want - there's a growing gap between expectation and the reality of practical solutions at hand."

Nina Zetsche, from Clear Blue Markets, offered her expertise. 

"The voluntary markets have become quite prominent in recent years, especially with more companies making more commitments towards net zero. There is more demand from investors as well."

For a full overview of the difference between offsetting and insetting tune in at the 1hr 52 mark.

* Make sure you sign up to the 5th Annual Baltic ICS Lecture Series, 'Maritime Decarbonisation and the Markets', here.