Posidonia 2026 closes after welcoming a record 5,000 visitors and 2,200 exhibitors
The 29th edition of the biennial Posidonia Exhibition closed today at the Athens Metropolitan Expo, cementing its position as the world's premier maritime business platform and the essential forum for setting the shipping industey’s policy agenda.
At the closing Press Conference of the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS), the body’s President Melina Travlos (pictured, centre) answered questions covering the full spectrum of the shipping industry at national, European and international level.
The transition to zero-emission shipping was prominent in the agenda across all five days, with the 2026 edition marking the first Posidonia held entirely within the European Union's Emissions Trading System for shipping - a regulatory reality that has fundamentally altered the economics of vessel operation for European-flagged and European-calling fleets.
More than any previous edition, Posidonia 2026 convened against a geopolitical landscape that placed shipping squarely at the intersection of global commerce, security and sovereignty. With seafarer lives increasingly at harms way, supply chains strained, trade routes under threat and tariff regimes in flux, the exhibition floor became an arena not merely of commerce but of a strategic recalibration.
The might of the Greek shipowners and the potential of Greece’s ship building sector were showcased during Posidonia week with a flurry of new business deals. George Prokopiou's Dynacom Tankers led the charge with a $1.47bn order for 12 VLCCs at China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding. Hengli Heavy Industries announced a $2.2bn package spanning 21 firm orders plus four options across six international shipowners, covering container ships, kamsarmax and capesize bulk carriers, LR2 product tankers and suezmax crude tankers - with Greek owners prominently represented across multiple vessel types, including Venergy Maritime's suezmax newbuilds. Also, ONEX Shipyards signed a 4+4 design-and-construction contract with V Group's Antipollution for eco-friendly vessels to be built entirely in Greece at Elefsina and Syros.
Theodore Vokos, Managing Director, Posidonia Exhibitions S.A., said: “As in every edition, Posidonia 2026 served as the preferred venue for the maritime industry's most significant commercial announcements, with major transactions concluded across newbuilding orders, technology partnerships, classification agreements and fuel transition initiatives.”
At the UGS Press Conference, Responding to a journalist’s reference to the largest orderbook of Greek shipping in 25 years, comprising 931 vessels, Ms Travlos stated that “we are leading fleet renewal and environmental performance.”
On decarbonisation, the President of the UGS argued that shipping had been “dragged” into unattainable targets set by the EU, which distorted the IMO’s 2050 objectives. With regard to the Net Zero framework, she described it as a “revenue-collection mechanism for the IMO”, with funds to be directed towards purposes unrelated to shipping. She also noted that Greece abstained from the October 2025 vote on the regulation in question. She further stressed that global, rather than regional, measures are essential.
Posidonia 2026 was organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy, the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping and the Union of Greek Shipowners, with the support of the Municipality of Piraeus and the Greek Shipping Co-operation Committee.