Greek DNA may continue to resist the inherent trend towards consolidation in the tanker industry, senior shipping players argued during TradeWinds' Shipowners Forum in Athens last week.

“There’s an old culture behind many of these companies,” Aegean Shipping Management chief executive Apostolos Poulovassilis argued. 

When the going gets tough, he claimed some smaller Greek companies tended to go out of business temporarily rather than look to give up their autonomy as part of bigger groups.