On March 25, 2010, the “2010 Shanghai Forum on International Shipping” was successfully held in Shanghai Hyatt on the Bund Hotel. The Forum was organized by the Ministry of Transport and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, operated by Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Commission, Hongkou District People’s Government, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Shanghai Maritime University, and co-organized by Shanghai International Shipping Institute (SISI) and Shanghai Shipping Exchange. Leaders, experts and scholars from domestic and foreign enterprises and institutions gathered together to discuss the impacts of the financial crisis on the current shipping industry and to suggest countermeasures. How does the shipping economy turn out to be in the future? How about the future market trend? What is the most important factor for building the soft environment? The organizing committee selected a few hotspots, and looked forward to hear people’s expectations on them by casting a vote.

Regarding the trend of global shipping economy in 2010, the majority believed that the world’s shipping economy has bottomed out, while nearly one-fourth of the respondents agreed on a continued recession. Very few people seemed modestly optimistic or pessimistic. The majority of participants were bullish about the international dry bulk and tanker markets, accounting for 42.5% and 36.67% respectively. Meanwhile, about 10% of the participants found confidence in the container market and expected a gradually recovery. Of course, in the context of the overall excess capacity and the relatively intensive delivery of new ships in the shipping market, the ship demolition market undoubtedly becomes active. In terms of “the most important factor for the construction of soft environment as required by the vigorous development of modern shipping service system”, 63.93% of votes went to the shipping professionals familiar with international practices, which not only showed the importance of talents to the construction of the shipping service system in a country or even in a region but also demonstrated the current shortage of high-end talents. Meanwhile, 22.13% believed that the tax policy integrated with international shipping market was the most important factor in the construction of soft environment, while 8.2% and 5.74% focused on a moderately loose financial regulatory environment and a legal environment encouraging innovation and intellectual property protection respectively.