25th Mare Forum Ship Finance 2026

We are proud to announce the 25th Mare Forum Ship Finance 2026 in Rotterdam, taking place immediately after the Intermodal Europe Exhibition 2026 (10–12 November), creating a unique opportunity to extend your insights, connections, and impact during a pivotal week for the global logistics and shipping community.

Mare Forum is not just another conference. This is where the maritime world thinks, challenges, and decides what comes next.

Why Mare Forum Stands Apart

For over two decades, Mare Forum has built a reputation for unfiltered dialogue and real insight. No scripted speeches. No safe answers. Just sharp minds, honest debate, and forward-looking ideas.
Each edition brings together a high-level audience of industry leaders who don’t just attend, they actively shape the discussion.

Why You Should Be There

- Real Conversations, Not Presentations
Engage in dynamic, unscripted discussions where panellists and participants challenge assumptions and explore what truly lies ahead.

- Clarity in Uncertain Times
From geopolitics to decarbonisation, from capital flows to AI—gain perspective on the forces redefining global shipping.

- Access to Decision-Makers
Meet and connect with shipowners, investors, banks, charterers, regulators, and innovators, the people who are driving change.

- Actionable Insight
If you want to understand where the industry is heading—and how to position yourself, this is where answers emerge.

Who You’ll Meet

A curated mix of:
- Shipowners, ship managers, and operators
- Capital providers, investors, and traders
- Insurers, Charterers, logistics and energy leaders
- Regulators, policymakers, and legal experts
- Shipbuilders, classification societies, and tech innovators
- Influential media and forward-thinking entrepreneurs
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This Is More Than an Event

Mare Forum is where connections turn into partnerships,
Where ideas turn into strategies,
and where the future of shipping takes shape.

Secure Your Place

If you want insight, influence, and access—this is where you need to be.

Join us in Rotterdam. Be part of the dialogue that defines what’s next.
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Why This Edition Matters More Than Ever

Global trade is shifting.
Energy systems are transforming.
Technology is accelerating.
Risk is being redefined

The questions are bigger. The stakes are higher.

Mare Forum 2026 is designed as a high-impact think tank, tackling sessions on :
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- Game change, unpredictability, geopolitics, managing new risks, shifting trade patterns,
- Energy security, and realistic energy transition pathways
- Shipping market outlook across all segments; investment trends: Where will the smart money go?
‍- Finance & strategy: aligning owners and capital providers; Investments, funds, subsidies, regulation
- Maritime industrial edge and innovation landscape: shipbuilding, ship recycling, critical raw materials, robotics, start-ups,
- AI, cybersecurity, and digital transformation; challenges, profitable investments
- Talent, leadership, maritime entrepreneurship, seafarers' perspectives, and technology
- The Shipowners’ Roundtable: The Gamble for Tomorrow

P R O G R A M M E 

🕙 08:15 -09:00
☕️ Registration and Networking
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🕙 09:00 - 09:30
SESSION 1

Opening and Welcome - Bold visions from industry pioneers and government visionaries

Welcome by the organisers and moderators
Keynote Speakers
Guest Speakers

🕙 09:30 - 10:20
SESSION 2‍

The Global Game Shift - Risks and Rewards.

How are shifting geopolitical blocs reshaping trade, shipping, maritime insurance, ship finance and regulations?

Discussion themes:

- Can European shipowners remain globally competitive while carrying a regulatory burden that their Asian, Gulf, and US competitors simply do not face?
- With the US retreating from multilateralism and China building parallel institutions, what is the realistic role for Europe in shaping the future of IMO?
- Has the sanctions policy made Europe a more or less attractive flag, finance, and services hub, and what comes next?
- Are European ports and shipping corridors becoming more or less central to global supply chains, and what would it take to reverse the trend?
- Is the era of rules-based global maritime trade over, and if so, what replaces it for European operators?
- Towards a World Without Rules?
- Can Europe maintain global influence, or will East–West competition redraw the map?
- How do sanctions and political instability affect global trade and shipping?
- Can insurers actually provide coverage for war or sanctions, and are some trade routes too risky to insure?
- How do geopolitical events influence premium calculations?
- How is the rise of Asia changing global risk portfolios?
- Should shipowners bear political risks themselves? How do we insure companies against expropriation or nationalisation?
- What credit risks arise in unstable markets? How can insurers accurately assess political risks?
- Which strategies are effective for risk management in conflict zones?
- The Dilemma: Protectionism vs Globalism
- Can Europe maintain its global influence, or will East–West competition redraw the map?

SESSION CHAIRMAN:

DISCUSSION PANELLISTS:

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🕙 10:20 - 11:10
SESSION 3

Is the Maritime Energy Transition Under Siege? Between Ambition and Reality — Where Do We Stand?
Energy- fuels - shipbuilding - circularity - ship recycling

The IMO'snet-zero framework stalled. Green fuel costs remain multiples higher than conventional fuel. Geopolitics is rewriting the fuel map faster than any climate policy can keep up.

Discussion themes:

- Has energy security quietly overtaken energy transition as the real priority, and is anyone willing to admit that openly?
- Are security and transition actually the same problem on different timelines, or is that just a comfortable story people tell themselves to avoid the trade-off?
- If a future energy crisis forces a choice between emissions targets and fuel availability, which one loses first?
- Is FuelEU Maritime accelerating decarbonisation — or accelerating the flight of tonnage out of European trades?
- Can Europe actually produce green fuel at the scale shipping needs — or is the entire transition plan built on imports we don't control?
- LNG, methanol, ammonia, hydrogen — which fuel is the industry actually betting on, and is anyone being honest about the infrastructure gap?
- Is nuclear propulsion the solution everyone's too scared to say out loud?
- Has energy security quietly overtaken energy transition as the real priority?
- Will the first operator to hit genuine zero-emission shipping at scale prove it works — or prove it can't be done profitably?
- What strategies can deliver impact after the IMO? Are current decarbonisation goals realistic, or are zero-emission ambitions slipping away?
- Are the Dutch and European shipowners leading the energy transition or being regulated into it, and does the difference matter? Who will lead, and who will lag, in the transition?
- Is robotics and automation Europe's genuine path back into competitive shipbuilding — or a narrative that flatters our technology sector while the gap with Korean and Chinese yards widens?
- Ship recycling and the circular economy: Is Europe serious about bringing this industry home, or will Alang and Aliağa continue to process the fleet Europe finances?
- Can Europe Rebuild Its Maritime Industrial Spine, or Has It Already Ceded the Future to Asia?
- Is European shipbuilding a strategic asset worth defending, or a sentimental attachment to an industry that left a generation ago?
- Can European yards compete on naval and specialised vessels while ceding commercial shipbuilding entirely, and is that a sustainable division of labour?

SESSION CHAIRMAN:

DISCUSSION PANELLISTS:

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🕙 11:10 - 11:40‍
‍☕️ Networking Break
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🕙 11:40 - 12:30
‍SESSION 4

Smart Investment Moves - Where should the money go? Shipping market outlook across all segments

Containers · Dry bulk · Tankers · LNG/LPG · Short sea.

- Which segment is most overvalued right now?
- Tankers or dry bulk- which one burns investors first?
- Would you rather own a 10-year-old ship today or a newbuild delivering in 2028?
- Which regulation will cause more pain: EU ETS or IMO's carbon intensity rules?
- Is the container orderbook a slow-motion crisis the industry is choosing to ignore?
- Is dry bulk's tight orderbook a genuine opportunity, or a trap set by an ageing, soon-to-be-obsolete fleet?
- Can dry bulk survive a China slowdown, or has the market not priced that risk at all?
- Why would anyone scrap a ship today when life-extension math still wins?
- Is the "dark fleet" the biggest hidden risk to tanker asset values, and is anyone actually pricing it in? Is the dark fleet a bigger risk to tankers or to the industry's reputation?
- Will tanker owners repeat the same over-ordering mistake they always make at the top of a cycle?
- Crude or product tankers, which one is quietly the better bet right now, and why isn't the market seeing it?
- Are LNG carrier owners overexposed to a liquefaction buildout that might not arrive on schedule?
- Is LNG really a "bridge fuel",  or a multi-decade bet the industry can't easily walk back?
- Is the gas carrier orderbook concentrated in too few hands to survive a demand shock?
- Is short sea shipping decarbonising faster than owners can actually afford?
- Could short sea shipping lose the sustainability argument entirely if road transport decarbonises faster?
- Is the short sea fleet's age profile a ticking time bomb, or proof the segment doesn't need new tonnage to stay profitable?
- Could short sea's ageing tonnage become the industry's biggest stranded-asset problem?
- Could short sea become the first segment to genuinely decarbonize at scale — and if so, why isn't more capital chasing that story?
- Is the short sea sector attractive to institutional investors at all, or is it structurally too small, too regional, too illiquid?

SESSION CHAIRMAN:

DISCUSSION PANELLISTS:

🕙 12:30 - 13:30
🍛 Networking Lunch

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🕙 13:30 - 14:20
‍SESSION 5

The Gamble for Tomorrow – Investing in People

Who Will Actually Run the Ships of Tomorrow?   Creating the Future Talent in Shipping, Trade and Logistics

Discussion themes:

- Don’t call it a "talent shortage." Is the maritime workforce crisis a recruitment problem, a retention problem, or a fundamental failure to make seafaring a credible career in the 21st century?
- The Netherlands and Greece talk about maritime heritage. Talent doesn't care about heritage; it cares about pay, lifestyle, and prestige.
- Do Dutch/European/Greek maritime industries have an actual plan to compete, or just nostalgia and a job fair?
- Diversity: is the industry doing it because it's right, or because an all-male, mono-national officer corps is simply bad for business? And if you can't answer that cleanly, what does that tell you?
- As automation cuts crew sizes, are we solving the talent shortage, or destroying the pipeline of experience that keeps ships safe?
- Are maritime academies training officers for real ships, or for museum pieces? Name one curriculum change in the last five years that assumes autonomous or hybrid-crewed vessels are coming.
- Mental health, welfare, working conditions at sea: is the industry's progress genuine, or reputational management that stops short of structural change?
- Your best graduate has offers from Google, Goldman Sachs, and a bulk carrier. Convince them, right now, in one sentence,  not "purpose," not "adventure," an actual reason. If you can't do it in one sentence, maybe that's the real crisis.
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Agenda for Action: the problem is well documented. What we need from this session are ideas that some will actually fund.

SESSION CHAIRMAN:

DISCUSSION PANELLISTS:

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🕙 14:20 - 15:10
‍SESSION 6

The rise of next-gen tech: cybersecurity, AI, automation, digitalisation. Innovations andstart-ups

‍Discussion themes:

- What is the number 1 issue in maritime digitalisation, preventing it from attracting broader adoption?
- From paperwork to decision-making: can AI-LLMs finally unlock the value buried in maritime data?
- As AI  make maritime expertise more accessible to smaller operators, can a three-ship owner compete on operational intelligence with the largest fleets?
- If an AI LLM can brief a captain on a port's regulatory requirements in seconds, what does that mean for crew competency, training, and the value of experience?
- Will Cybersecurity become a “Competitive advantage”?
- Cyber has moved from IT's problem to the boardroom's problem. The question now is whether it becomes a line item you defend, or a line item that defends your access to capital.
- When AI causes a collision, who stands in court: the captain, the CEO, or the software engineer?
- Is the industry heading toward a two-tier insurance market,  cheaper cover for owners who adopt AI/cyber-resilience standards, and a rising premium for those who don't?
- Can war risk and cyber war exclusions keep pace with state-sponsored attacks on shipping's digital infrastructure?
- Autonomous ships: efficiency or strategic risk?
- Is autonomous-vessel liability even insurable under current frameworks?
- Accountability matters. Who pays when it fails?
- Fragmented World, Fragmented Technology; Will ships soon need a “digital flag state”?
- Is AI in shipping a genuine operational revolution or an expensive experiment that has yet to prove its return on investment?
- Is cyber risk becoming fundamentally uninsurable?
- Will financiers start pricing cyber resilience like credit risk?
- Are we surrendering strategic control to a handful of global tech giants?
- Are we creating ships that cannot function without constant satellite connectivity?
- Can we create a common data standard so AI tools, port systems, and ship systems can actually talk to each other, instead of every vendor building a walled garden

SESSION CHAIRMAN:

DISCUSSION PANELLISTS:

🕙 15:10 - 15:40‍
☕️ Networking Break

🕙 15:40- 16:30
‍SESSION 7

Money Talks: What Ship Owners Want - What Capital Providers Expect

Aligning ship owners and capital providers; ShipFinance, funds, subsidies, regulations.

Where will the smart money come from, and what does the maritime industry need? The role of capital providers, public money, industry and governments.
Topics to be discussed:

‍‍Discussion themes:

- Does Europe still control its own fleet financing, or has that moved East?
- Is there an energy transition funding gap nobody wants to admit?
- Poseidon Principles: real change, or box-ticking?
- Can Europe compete with Chinese state-backed finance, should it even try?
- Has ESG made banks more responsible, or just more expensive?
- Is there an energy transition funding gap nobody wants to admit?
- Alternative lenders: healthy diversification, or banks fleeing?
- Dual-fuel newbuilds: financed on forecasts, or hope?
- Is finance quietly manufacturing the next stranded-asset crisis?
- Wrong fuel, wrong value, who eats the loss?
- Private credit: smart money, or yield-chasers with no skin in the game?
- Alternative capital: filling a gap, or inflating a bubble?
- Is short sea too small for banks to bother with?
- Who's really financing short sea — or is it self-funded and unspoken?
- Fragmented ownership: weakness, or survival strategy?
- Can small owners afford the green transition — or is that fantasy?
- Short sea green finance: real market, or EU subsidy in disguise?
- Who underwrites a 25-year-old coaster's residual value?
- Scrap or refit, and does anyone dare say which?
- Chinese leasing, quietly taking Europe's coastal fleet?
- No financing, no fleet — does road freight win by default?
- Consolidate or stay fragmented — which one survives?
- If you had one billion euros to deploy in maritime today, where would it go, and what does that answer reveal about where the real opportunities and gaps are?

SESSION CHAIRMAN:

DISCUSSION PANELLISTS:

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🕙 16:30 - 17:00
‍SESSION 8

Concluding Session – Bold Moves & Hard Truths: Recommendations for the Future

General discussion between all speakers, panellists, audience participants and organizers

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🕙 17:00 - 18:00
🍷🍺 Networking & Drinks ‍

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👉 If you are an owner needing help finding a good capital provider, come to Mare Forum. Here they are.
👉 If you are a capital provider needing help finding a good owner, come to Mare Forum and meet them.
👉 If you are in shipping and ship finance and want to know what will happen next, come to Mare Forum. Good answers will be there.
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Rest assured, the Mare Forum Shipfinance conference will be an inspiring and enriching experience.
We are excited to see you participate.
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Mare Forum – Where Brilliant Maritime Minds Converge to Shape the Future

We are looking forward to meeting  in Rotterdam
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It will be inspiring - register now!
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MARE FORUM