Widdows to chair WSC, Box Club extends Adrion

Widdows to chair WSC, Box Club extends Adrion Ron Widdows, group president and chief executive officer of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Line, parent company of container line APL, has been elected chairman of the World Shipping Council.
   He succeeds Adolf Adrion, CEO of German carrier Hapag-Lloyd, who is retiring at the end of the year after 51 years with the company, the Washington-based trade association for the international container vessel industry said.

Widdows	Adrion

   Ulrich Kranich, who is taking over for Adrion at Hapag-Lloyd, was elected to the World Shipping Council board.
   Meanwhile, the International Council of Containership Operators, known as the Box Club, voted at its annual meeting in Geneva to keep Adrion, 68, as chairman for another year, according to a well-placed liner industry source who didn’t want to appear speaking on behalf of the organization. The Box Club is the container shipping industry’s CEO forum. It meets twice a year to discuss industry issues and has largely overlapping membership with the WSC.
   NOL is one of two groups bidding to buy Hapag-Lloyd in a public auction.
   Widdows has rapidly established himself as one of the most prominent figures in liner shipping. His chairmanship of the WSC puts him in the position of leading three groups that have a major influence on the shipping industry.
   Widdows moved up in July from the top spot at APL to take the helm at NOL following the sudden departure of then-CEO Thomas Held. He is also chairman of both the Westbound Transportation Stabilization Agreement, a discussion agreement of carriers moving cargo from the United States to Asia, and the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement covering liner carriers in the Asia to U.S. trade.
   Widdows is taking on the WSC leadership at a critical time as the shipping industry deals with the end of conference system in Europe, environmental concerns about emissions, skyrocketing fuel prices and a global economic slowdown just as carriers are taking delivery of new ship builds.
   Four other members of the WSC board were re-elected for new two-year terms: Thomas Crowley Jr., Crowley Maritime Corp.; Doren Goder, Zim Integrated Shipping Services; J.W. Park, Hanjin Shipping; and Masakaza Yakushiji, MOL. ' Eric Kulisch