Newsmaker of the Year reflects market success.

(From Lloyds List)

Byline: Lloyd's List editor Julian Bray presented the Greek Newsmaker of the Year award after having earlier welcomed guests to the awards dinner. Here are his comments and observations

I AM delighted to see so many friends and colleagues from across the industry here to celebrate not only the outstanding contribution made by Greece as the world's pre-eminent shipowning nation, but also the astonishing renaissance in the commercial fortunes of shipping.

Remarkably, 2004 is now set to be perhaps the most profitable year in shipping ever. Now let me just repeat that once more, a little more slowly since I am not sure that I believe it myself yet. Perhaps the most profitable year in shipping ever. And that's across nearly all sectors, trades and sizes of ships.

But while the numbers speak for themselves, may I say that I do not believe that the impact of this dramatic and sustained upturn has been grasped by some within the industry, let alone many on the outside.

For too long shipping has been something of a pariah to the wider business world, often with one year of plenty followed by seven years of famine, as we have had to report in the pages of Lloyd's List sadly all too often.

I believe this is set to change. Perhaps there will not quite be seven full years of plenty, but there will certainly be more than a few.