CESA has a long tradition as representative organisation at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London. Starting in 1937 as « International Shipbuilding Conference », it was re-established after the war as « West European Shipbuilders Informal Contacts » and renamed in 1965 to « Association of West European Shipbuilders », AWES. In the eighties, AWES established an EC-linking committee, which later on became a separate sister organisation under the name of CESA. In 2004, however, AWES and CESA decided to go back to the initial one-organisation structure, i.e. CESA.