The European Liner Affairs Association today named Ulrich Kranich, member of the executive board of Hapag-Lloyd, as its new chairman for 2008.
The Brussels-based ocean carrier lobby group also awarded a contract to Dublin, Ireland-based software firm P3 Technology to run ELAA's new information exchange system.
Kranich will take over at the ELAA from Mediterranean Shipping Co. Chairman Gianluigi Aponte, effective Jan. 1.
The ELAA was established in May 2003 to represent liner shipping companies during the European Commission's review of Regulation 4056/86, which allows liner conferences a block exemption to set common freight rates and cooperate on capacity, but is set for repeal on Oct. 18, 2008.
"The liner industry owes Mr. Aponte a major debt of gratitude," said Chris Bourne, executive director of the ELAA. "As chairman of the ELAA over the past year, he has guided the group through the final stages of talks with the EC which has culminated in the publication of the draft guidelines.
Hapag-Lloyd's Kranich said he was looking forward to a new era in liner shipping, particularly in relations with shippers at an association level.
Aside from extra staff and new offices in London and Singapore, the ELAA's remit is being expanded into the role of a trade association, one of its post-conference era proposals cleared by the EC's recent draft guidelines along with the information exchange that will include pricing, volume and capacity data. The ELAA said P3 and its member lines would begin testing the new database early next year so that it will be ready for October.
PS was established in 2001 by Phelim Pekaar and Daniel Griffiths, and provides a range of Web-based enterprise applications for the hotel industry and a statistical analysis platform for the maritime industry.
"We are very excited about starting the new system," Bourne said. "After years of talks in Brussels, we will finally be implementing our ideas in the real world. In the very near future we will be publishing information about the output shippers and the general public can expect from the industry. This information will be highly useful to all participants in our industry.
Shipper groups such as the European Shippers' Council fear that the information exchange is evidence of the liner industry clinging to its old practices, and have called on the EC to revise its guidelines and outlaw the ELAA's proposal.
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