Mercator Media has been appointed the official media partner of the International Association of Ports & Harbors. The agreement, which has been signed for an initial period of three years, includes the overall production of the annual World Ports Conference (WPC) and the publishing of the bi-monthly Ports & Harbors magazine (P&H).

World Ports Conference

The World Ports Conference has been held in a members’ port city since 1955. The now annual Conference is a world-class event, where the indispensable role of ports in global maritime trade is discussed in terms of energy transition, data collaboration, and resilience. It brings together key industry stakeholders for learning, information sharing, networking, and collaboration.

This year’s Conference was held 31 October - 2 November in Abu Dhabi and attracted over 650 delegates, including senior representation from the IMO, World Bank, World Customs Organization and UNCTAD . The 2024 Conference is planned for 8-10 October and will take place in Hamburg, Germany. The host sponsor will be the Hamburg Port Authority, and will be attended by both senior German government and industry representatives.

To mark the 70th anniversary of IAPH, the 2025 World Ports Conference will be held in Kobe, Japan in October 2025.

Ports & Harbors magazine

Ports and Harbors is the flagship membership magazine of IAPH and is published on a bi-monthly basis. It is renowned for high design values, insightful reports and open opinion pieces and debates on the latest developments around the world of ports and terminals.

Mercator Media will be reviewing opportunities to extend the distribution of content online and other ways to enhance communications between IAPH and its membership.

Andrew Webster, Chief Executive of Mercator commented, ‘Ports facilitate world trade and working with the leading representative association to help enhance The World Ports Conference and Ports & Harbors magazine will be a great opportunity for the team at Mercator. It also complements our existing activities in this vital industry sector’.

Patrick Verhoeven, Managing Director of IAPH added: “The World Ports Conference has now become the global industry forum for the sector, with Ports & Harbors magazine disseminating the content of that forum and our main technical committees throughout the year for the IAPH membership. We are delighted to enter into this partnership with Mercator Media. The company has been working in the port industry space since 1989, and will offer IAPH added value in terms of networking, content, event management and publication expertise.”