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The London headquartered Baltic Exchange today (5 November 2013) held its first ever board meeting outside of the UK. Baltic Exchange directors met at Thomson Reuters Singapore offices to discuss a range of shipping market issues including proposed changes to the Baltic Exchange's index definitions.

Holding a board meeting in Asia reflects the importance of the region to the Baltic Exchange which currently has around 200 member firms with offices based in Asia and 100 in Singapore alone. A total of 610 companies and 2,477 individuals drawn from across the bulk shipping markets are currently members of the Baltic Exchange.

Baltic Exchange chairman, Quentin Soanes, said: "We would like to increase Asian representation on our board and holding our meetings outside of the UK will help to encourage this. We hope to hold regular board meetings in the region in the future."

Earlier this year the Baltic Exchange upgraded the status of its Singapore representative office to a Singaporean registered entity Baltic Exchange (Asia) Pte Ltd. It also acknowledged the increased levels of chartering authority in the Asia-Pacific region by moving the time of the publication of its nine capesize routes and index forward by two hours. This September also saw the opening of a Baltic Exchange office in Shanghai.

As well as today’s board meeting, the Baltic is holding a series of events in Singapore this week including a reception at the Raffles Hotel which will be attended by the Singapore Minister of Transport Lui Tuck Yew and the British High Commissioner Antony Phillipson.

On 7 November the Baltic Exchange and Forward Freight Agreement Brokers’ Association (FFABA) will be holding the Asia Derivatives Forum at the ParkRoyal on Pickering hotel. Presentations and discussions will be given by leading market traders and analysts to an audience of traders, shipowners and charterers.