Summary
It's the lifeblood of the world's economy, moving most of our imports and exports and around the globe. But shipping is changing: vessels and ports are getting bigger and competition for trade is coming from the Far East.
Evan Davis and guests from the world of shipping discuss how ports are run and how the shipping business manages the risk of accidents and piracy.
Guests:
James Cooper - CEO of Associated British Ports. , a private company which owns and runs 21 ports in the UK. Kenneth MacLeod - Chairman of Stena Line UK and President of the UK Chamber of Shipping. Rupert Atkin - CEO of Talbot Underwriting and Chairman of the Lloyd's Market Association.
Producer - Smita Patel.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this program. In this edition of the bottom line, Evan Davis and guests |
| 0:05.5 | discuss the business of shipping. Hello and welcome to the program and today we adopt a |
| 0:11.2 | maritime theme and take a look at the world of shipping. The advent of containerization, |
| 0:16.6 | reshaped and shrank the world in the last century, making more international trade possible than ever before. |
| 0:22.7 | So what voyage is the industry embarking on in this century? |
| 0:26.7 | Well, I'm joined by three people from completely different businesses, but all integral to the shipping industry. |
| 0:32.9 | We have a portsman, James Cooper, Chief Executive of Associated British Ports. |
| 0:38.8 | It's a private company. It owns and runs 21 ports in the UK. |
| 0:42.9 | Most notably, James... |
| 0:44.6 | Imingham and Southampton. |
| 0:46.2 | Okay. We have a shipper, Ken Kenneth MacLeod, chairman of Stenner Line, UK. |
| 0:51.8 | Ken is also president of the UK Chamber of Shipping. |
| 0:55.2 | And Kenneth Stena is both freight and passengers. |
| 0:58.0 | Freight and passengers, a total of 15 million passengers in our European services, including the UK. |
| 1:03.6 | And 3 million cars and 1.6 million freight units. |
| 1:08.0 | Right. |
| 1:08.7 | And we also have an insurer, Rupert Atkin, Chief Executive of |
| 1:12.6 | Talbot Underwriting, and Chairman of the Lloyd's Market Association. And Rupert, you've been in |
| 1:18.7 | Marine Insurance for how long? 32 years. 32 years. You don't look old enough. Welcome, gentlemen. |
| 1:25.6 | Now, I've been reading a little about this business in the last few days |
| 1:28.9 | and have been struck by how interesting it is, how many fascinating facts there are. So given that |
| 1:35.2 | most of us know very little about your business, what I want is an interesting fact from each of you, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.