History & Background

The history of the Motorship’s Propulsion & Future Fuels Conference.

The history of the Motorship’s Propulsion & Future Fuels Conference
The Motorship’s Propulsion & Future Fuels conference is this year celebrating its 45th edition and is the longest running technical conference in the maritime sector.

Propulsion & Future Fuels is a collaboration of two conferences, Gas Fuelled Ships and Propulsion and Emissions. Both events were strong in their own right.

The last Propulsion & Emissions conference included shipowner panels and audiences representing 2,000 ships, while Gas Fuelled Ships grew from a single day event into a two-day conference covering all alternative low flash point fuels with a day of technical visits.

Both conferences featured strong support and chairmanship from two of the sectors heavy weight associations: BIMCO, whose shipowner members represent more than 60% of global tonnage, and the German shipowner association VDR, headquartered in Hamburg and representing a fleet of 2,720 ships with a combined gross tonnage of 71 million.

With ongoing developments and increased overlap between both of the events The Motorship’s Propulsion & Future Fuels joined the two together in one large, enhanced conference which took place in 2018.

What is the Motorship?
The Motorship has been published since 1920 and is the longest running technical title within the marine sector. It provides insight for the marine technology professionals in print, online and through regular e-newsletters and social media. With a monthly combined audience of 26,015 this title underpins the success of its sister events.

What is Propulsion and Future Fuels?
Bringing together the strength of The Motorship Propulsion & Emissions and Gas Fuelled Ships conferences, The Motorship Propulsion & Future Fuels attracts an audience of 200 to Hamburg.

Its goal is to provide decision makers from the ship operating sector, ship design and construction companies, fuel, equipment and technology suppliers plus classification and policy-making organisations with a meeting place to learn, discuss and knowledge share solutions to operational and regulatory challenges.

In 2017, The Motorship Propulsion & Emissions Conference and Gas Fuelled Ships attracted 140 and 160 attendees respectively, from 30 countries. The joint audience included operators managing a combined fleet in excess of 2,560 ships. The highest proportion of delegates of the combined events were shipowners and yards (35%).

You can find out more about the delegates of the most recent event on the Why Attend page.