News

Signing of Kobe Declaration closes #IAPH2025

October 17, 2025

The 2025 IAPH World Ports Conference –held in Kobe, Japan last week –concluded with theIAPH and the City of Kobe signinga joint declaration reaffirming their shared dedication to advancing sustainable development across the global port and maritime industries. The declaration was co-signed on the closing day of #IAPH2025by Mayor Kizo Hisamoto and IAPH president Jens Meier, CEO of Hamburg Port Authority. The ceremony celebrated the symbolic return of IAPH to its roots at the conference, held in

Buses build buzz for #IAPH2026 in London

October 17, 2025

London was formally announced as the venue for next year’s IAPH World Ports Conference, as #IAPH2025 concluded in Kobe. Siân Foster, director of corporate affairs at the Port of London Authority and Richard Ballantyne, chief executive of the British Ports Association, joined IAPH managing director Patrick Verhoeven on stage at the Hotel Okura to explain what delegates could expect at next year’s event, to be held 3-5 November. The UK’s biggest port,Port of London Authority(PLA), is a Diamond-lev

#IAPH2025 awards dominated by Africa and Korea

October 17, 2025

Three standout ports from Africa and two from Korea were among the seven winners celebrated at theIAPH Sustainability Awardsceremony held on day two of the World Ports Conference in Kobe. At the gala dinner event, held at the Portopia Hotel, African ports claimed three of the top awards –Ghana Ports & Harbors Authority triumphed in theCommunity Buildingcategory, Kenya Ports Authority won in theEnvironmental Carecategory, and Benin’s Autonomous Port of Cotonou took home a second consecutiveAkiyam

ADB and IAPH join forces through two-year MoU

October 17, 2025

At the opening of this year’s World Ports Conference, IAPH forged a new chapter of collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In a symbolic move immediately following the opening keynote from ADB president Masato Kanda – who referred to ports as 'lifelines for communities and engines of growth' – the two organisationssigned a two-year Memorandum of Understanding. Under the agreement, IAPH and ADB will focus on regional connectivity and integration, port and supply-chain infrastructure

#IAPH2025 highlights CMF tools & GMCD cooperation

October 17, 2025

At the IAPH 2025 World Ports Conference in Kobe, IAPH announced two complementary initiatives to advance global port decarbonisation. First, with the launch of IAPH’s newProducts Portal, the Clean Marine Fuels Working group’s member-developed tools became available via one hub. Among them are an industry-first publicly availableammonia bunker safety checklist, an updated series of liquid gases bunker checklists, a fuel-agnostic terminal call checklist, and the Clean Marine Fuels Ready Tool for t

IAPH and CLIA strengthen cooperation with MoU

October 17, 2025

During day two of the #IAPH2025, IAPH and the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that outlines areas where the two organisations intend to cooperate. The non-binding MoU covers several areas of cooperation, focusing on industry regulation and bilateral exchange of information on technical capabilities, environmental initiatives, technical collaboration and sustainability best practices. The MoU reflects a shared intent to make it easier fo

IAPH board voted in unanimously at AGM

October 17, 2025

At the IAPH annual general meeting, the association’snew boardwas officially elected unanimously for the next two years by those members who were present. We warmly congratulate the re-elected president Jens Meier, CEO, Hamburg Port Authority, the re-elected regional vice presidents Gene Seroka, executive director, Port of Los Angeles (North America), Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO, Port of Antwerp-Bruges (Europe), Vinicius Patel, director of port administration, Porto do Açu (Central and South Ameri

CMF and PRL working groups meet before #IAPH2025

October 17, 2025

The IAPHClean Marine Fuels(CMF) and Port Readiness Level working groups of theClimate and Energycommittee were already hard at work the week before #IAPH2025, hosted by the City of Kobe in downtown Kobe. The CMF Working Group reviewed the impressive suite of tools it has been working on this year and discussed the dissemination of these products, as well as a roadmap for future tools. ThePort Readiness Levelworking group opened with a presentation made by the CO2-free Hydrogen Energy Supply-ch

Technical Committee day in Kobe kicks off #IAPH2025

October 17, 2025

On 6 October, the day before the official opening of #IAPH2025, more than 70 IAPH members gathered in person at the Hotel Okura for in-person Technical Committee meetings covering port operations and finance, climate and energy, data collaboration and risk and resilience (combined and separate sessions), with a cruise committee workshop taking place in parallel. With many of the sessions including remote interventions by speakers, the discussions taking place in the ‘engine room’ of IAPH will

Port Endeavor game debuts in Japanese

October 17, 2025

On day three of #IAPH2025, more than 20 players from IAPH’s membership in Japan gathered for the first ever live gameplay of thePort Endeavorgame in Japanese. The game was made available following months of preparation: translating all the activity, event, Port Endeavor and player profile cards; integrating them with Japanese characters in the Port Endeavor portal; and finally testing the registration and scoring systems on laptop, desktop, tablet and smart phone devices. With Japanese port co

Explore IAPH’s brand new products portal

October 17, 2025

Launched at #IAPH2025, along with asuite ofClean Marine Fuels products, the association’s website now features aproduct portalin which all products produced by the IAPH technical committees in the past four years are consolidated into a single portal. All those products in the public domain can be accessed directly from the portal. Those products which are available exclusively for the membership are available on themember area of the IAPH websiteand can now be purchased by non-members via Sho

#IAPH2025 receives high-level media attention

October 17, 2025

The opening of the 2025 IAPH World Ports Conference received significant media attention in Japan, with television station NHK, news organisation NIKKEI and all major Kobe city media outlets present at the plenary opening session. All#IAPH2025media partnerseither held interviews ahead of the event or were present in person, with journalistsinterviewing many of the IAPH board members and keynote speakers and panelists in the press and IAPH VIP rooms during the conference. Japan’s Kaji Press (Da