The International Chamber of Shipping is the world's principal shipping organisation, representing around 75% of the world’s merchant tonnage; through membership of national shipowners' associations, concerned with all regulatory, operational and legal issues.

A major ICS activity is at the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 agency with responsibility for the safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment, the International Maritime Organization

International Maritime Organization

The International Maritime Organization , formerly known as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization , was established in Geneva in 1948, and came into force ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959...

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ICS is unique in that it unlike other international shipping trade associations it represents the global interests of all the different trades in the industry: bulk carrier

Bulk carrier

A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have fueled the development of these ships,...

 operators, tanker

Tanker (ship)

A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...

 operators, passenger ship

Passenger ship

A passenger ship is a ship whose primary function is to carry passengers. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is...

 operators and container liner

Container ship

Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport.-History:...

 trades, including shipowners and third party ship managers.

ICS has consultative status with a number of intergovernmental bodies which have an impact on shipping, these include: the World Customs Organization

World Customs Organization

The World Customs Organization is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. With its worldwide membership, the WCO is recognized as the voice of the global customs community...

, the International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues....

, and the World Meteorological Organization

World Meteorological Organization

The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 189 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization , which was founded in 1873...

. The ICS also has close relationships with industry organisations representing different maritime interests such as shipping, port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

s, pilotage

Pilotage

Pilotage is the use of fixed visual references on the ground or sea by means of sight or radar to guide oneself to a destination, sometimes with the help of a map or nautical chart. People use pilotage for activities such as guiding vessels and aircraft, hiking and Scuba diving...

, the oil industry, insurance and classification societies responsible for the surveying of ships.

2009 Climate Protest

On 14 May 2009, Lloyds List published an article revealing the plan by organisers of the recent G20 climate camp protests in London to hold a demonstration outside the International Chamber of Shipping headquarters in London on Monday 18 May.

Relocation to the Baltic Exchange

In October 2011, the International Chamber of Shipping left office space on Carthusian Street, near the Barbican Estate

Barbican Estate

The Barbican Estate is a residential estate built during the 1960s and the 1970s in the City of London, in an area once devastated by World War II bombings and today densely populated by financial institutions...

, owned by the British Chamber of Shipping and moved to the Baltic Exchange

Baltic Exchange

The Baltic Exchange is the world's only independent source of maritime market information for the trading and settlement of physical and derivative contracts...

 on St Mary Axe

St Mary Axe

St Mary Axe was a medieval parish in London whose name survives on the street it formerly occupied, St Mary Axe. The church itself was demolished in 1561 and its parish united with that of St Andrew Undershaft, which is on the corner of St Mary Axe and Leadenhall Street...

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