Can China rise to the challenge to once again drive growth in global trade and a recovery in the shipping industry worldwide? The world's fastest growing major economy fuelled the shipping boom in the last decade, and with Europe and the US continuing to struggle, China now more than ever holds the key to success for the next few years.

The TradeWinds Shipping China conference has always been an excellent meeting place for maritime thought leaders and industry enthusiasts and in this much-anticipated Year of the Dragon, the conference will be in its auspicious 8th year. To be hosted by NHST Events, the conference will be held in the Kerry Hotel in Pudong, Shanghai, from 22nd – 23rd May, 2012.

The organisers have recently released the final agenda, aptly themed "Will the Dragon deliver?" for the two-day conference, which will cover both timely as well as timeless issues – from charter party disputes to banned VLOCs, the fate of shipyards to the liquidity conundrum.

A brand new topic to be covered at this year's event will be the LNG sector, which has seen growing interest from all parties including investors, shippers and shipowners. Raymond Ko, Director of Transportation at ABN AMRO was recently quoted as saying “Investors are very attracted to the LNG sector because they do not consider LNG carriers as pure shipping. Instead they see it as part of the LNG logistics chain”. An expert panel of speakers will cover this hot topic in detail on the first day of the conference.

TradeWinds editor-in-chief Julian Bray notes "the Shipping China conference has always been an important event on our annual calendar, and this year more than ever, the industry very much needs a platform to discuss the process of surfacing from these extremely challenging times".

One of the sectors experiencing very challenging times at the moment are the Chinese shipyards – with excess capacity and a dried-up orderbook, the signs are not positive. Tan Zuojun, head of the CSSC, has recently gone on record to say that he expects over 50% of Chinese yards to fold in the coming year through a combination of liquidation and consolidation.

Confirmed leading shipping organisations to be present at the conference include Paragon Shipping, Pacific Basin Shipping, DNB Bank, Sinosure, Grenland Group Asia, BNP Paribas, Guangdong Yuexin Ocean Engineering, Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group, Wärtsilä Ship Power, Tai Chong Cheang Group and many others. This will once again be a not-to-be-missed opportunity for participants to engage with the most pertinent of questions and issues in today's shipping world.

Commenting on the arrangements, conference director Banu Kannu said, "feedback from the market has been overwhelmingly positive; we are confident of delivering a top-drawer event that will once again set the agenda for China shipping over the coming year by bringing together the best possible combination of international, regional and local speakers and panelists, all of whom are extremely experienced in dealing with this market".

TradeWinds Shipping China is sponsored by Wärtsilä, Rongsheng, ClassNK, CCS, ABS, SEAQUEST, Cargotec, GL, DNV, RINA, Wikborg Rein, Goltens & Star Asia.

The latest agenda for the conference can be viewed at: http://www.nhstevents.com/events/shipping-china-2012/.For more information, please contact: banu.kannu@nhstevents.com