INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF SHIPPING

What is ICS?

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is the international trade association for merchant ship operators.

ICS represents the collective views of the international industry from different nations, sectors and trades.

ICS membership comprises national shipowners' associations representing over half of the world's merchant fleet.

A major focus of ICS activity is the International Maritime Organization (IMO) ­ the United Nations agency with responsibility for the safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment.

ICS is heavily involved in a wide variety of areas including any technical, legal and operational matters affecting merchant ships.

ICS is unique in that it represents the global interests of all the different trades in the industry: bulk carrier operators, tanker operators, passenger ship operators and container liner trades, including shipowners and third party ship managers.

ICS has consultative status with a number of intergovernmental bodies which have an impact on shipping. Its close ties with IMO stretch back to this body's inception in 1958. Other partners include the World Customs Organisation, the International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the World Meteorological Organization. ICS also enjoys close relationships with industry organisations representing different maritime interests such as shipping, ports, pilotage, the oil industry, insurance and classification societies responsible for the surveying of ships.

ICS is committed to the principle of maritime regulation being formulated at an international level. Shipping is by nature international: the regulations that apply to a ship when it sails from Buenos Aires must apply equally when it arrives in Brisbane. The alternative to an international system of shipping legislation would be a chaotic web of local rules and regulations that would result in commercial distortions and mass economic deficiencies. The objective of ICS is the maintenance of a sound, well considered global regulatory environment in which well-run ships can operate safely and efficiently.

How ICS works

The national associations that belong to ICS provide national representatives through a network of committees, which are responsible for developing the international policy of the industry, including positions to be adopted on international maritime regulatory questions. The national representatives to ICS Committees include experts from individual shipping companies which are members of the national shipowners' associations that belong to ICS. So far as possible, ICS represents the views of the entire shipping industry at the various fora which develop international maritime conventions and recommendations, especially the International Martitime Organisation (IMO). ICS is particularly influential because of the support it receives from its member national shipowners associations' which represent the views agreed within ICS to their national governments, which in turn comprise the membership of bodies such as IMO (see diagram).