About the Forum

Asian Shipowners’ Forum (ASF) was founded in April 1992 when its first meeting was held at Japan Shipping Club in Tokyo. As one of the important shipping organizations in the world, it consists of eight members from the shipowners’ associations of Asia Pacific nations, i.e. Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei and Federation of ASEAN Shipowners’ Associations (FASA), consisting of Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The ASF membership together is estimated to control about 50% of the world merchant fleet today.

Following the principle agreed at the first ASF meeting, the venues for the annual meetings have been conducted on a rotational basis by the members from the North to South in geographical order.

Five standing committees are formed in ASF and each is headed by a nominated chairman. They are the Shipping Economics Review Committee (SERC), Ship Recycling committee (SRC), Seafarers Committee (SC), Safe Navigation & Environment Committee (SNEC) and Ship Insurance & Liability Committee (SILC).
The work is basically done between the annual ASF meetings, with each committee being committed to convene at least one meeting a year.

In viewing of the growing importance of the ASF, it was decided at the 16th annual meeting in Korea in May 2007 that the permanent office for the ASF should be set up and the location of the ASF office is in Singapore. After the ASF 2rd Chairmen’s Meeting held in July, the ASF opened its office Singapore in October 2007.