“The continued highly dynamic development of COVID-19 and the resulting ban on major events have left us no other choice but to postpone SMM to next year. Finding a suitable new timeframe for SMM was not an easy task for us, and we are happy we have been able to do so," said Bernd Aufderheide, President and CEO of Hamburg Messe und Congress.

Following intense consultations with the exhibitor advisory board, Hamburg Messe und Congress and its partners and other exhibitor representatives have agreed on the new dates, from 2 to 5 February 2021. This means SMM will be the new year’s first international gathering of the maritime industry.

“We will offer the global maritime community an extraordinary, more compact SMM in February 2021. Together we will overcome this crisis and host an SMM that will live up to its own, high standards. We are looking forward to welcoming everybody back,” said Bernd Aufderheide.

Originally SMM was to take place from 8 to 11 September 2020.