Scotland's shipping industry faces an 'uncertain' future if the country gains independence.

This is the view of the president of the UK Chamber of Shipping, who accused first minister Alex Salmond of not doing enough to spell out exactly what the sector would look like if the nation was to break away.

Ken MacLeod, who is also chairman of Stena Line, pointed out that the Scottish National Party published their white paper on the future of the industry, outlining that the UK taxpayer would continue to fund regulatory and administrative agencies in the shipping sector. He therefore suggested that this did not constitute true independence. 

He claimed he was not trying to influence the outcome of this year's referendum, but added: "Time is running out. This is real. We need to know in detail how independence would work so that Scottish shipping can at least have some certainty."

Mr MacLeod also used his keynote speech at the UK Chamber of Shipping's annual dinner to attack what he called interference on the part of the EU in industry plans to reduce sulphur emissions. He advised that the sector has already made plans to facilitate this by 2020, but European regulations are demanding a starting point of 2015.