COSCO’s $3 Billion Boxship Order Turns Fleet Renewal Into a Capacity Race
COSCO Shipping Holdings has committed nearly $3 billion to another round of containership newbuildings, ordering 18 vessels from Chinese shipyards under the CSSC group. The package includes 12 LNG dual-fuel 22,000 TEU class ships...
Can a Fiber-Optic Cable Replace Another Coastal Radar? 8 Numbers Behind Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Dark-Ship Detection
DAS dark-ship detection A subsea fiber cable will not replace every coastal radar, but it may replace the next radar in the wrong place Perhaps we should judge distributed acoustic sensing as a corridor-surveillance...
Panama Canal Loosens Booking Rules as $5.3M Auction Bid Exposes Slot Squeeze
The Panama Canal has temporarily rewritten key parts of its Neopanamax reservation system as reduced water availability tightens transit capacity and competition for guaranteed passages intensifies. Effective August 30 for transit booking dates beginning...
Should Every Warship Carry a Metal 3D Printer?
Shipboard metal additive manufacturing report Should every warship carry a metal 3D printer? Perhaps the right answer is not every warship. It is every deployed naval force should have access to a certified metal...
Your Ship’s Cranes Are Now a SOLAS Issue: 10 Costs Owners Should Budget Before the Next Renewal Survey
SOLAS 2026 Lifting Appliances Your Ship’s Cranes Are Now a SOLAS Issue: 10 Costs Owners Should Budget Before the Next Renewal Survey A ship crane that has worked for years can still become a...
Hormuz Tanker Traffic Collapses Again as U.S.-Iran Strikes Put Shipping Back in the Line of Fire
Hormuz shipping is back in the firing line after a new round of U.S.-Iran attacks shattered the latest attempt to stabilize one of the world’s most important energy corridors. U.S. forces struck Iranian launchers...
Cruise Food Waste Machines Are Becoming a Shipboard ROI Battle
Cruise Food Waste Machine ROI Report The winning food-waste system is not one machine. It is a sorted pathway. I see Star Princess operating 26 food-waste machines as a useful signal because cruise waste...
Austal Starts Third Heritage-Class OPC as $3.3B Coast Guard Program Accelerates in Mobile
Austal USA has started construction of its third Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutter, the future USCGC Ingham, at its Mobile, Alabama, shipyard, putting three of the Coast Guard’s next-generation offshore workhorses into production at the...
VLCC Rates Are Turning Into the Cleanest Signal in the Crude Tanker Market
VLCC Market Rundown Frontline Locks VLCCs at Up to $120,000 Per Day, But the Bigger Story Is the Rate Ladder Behind It Frontline locking VLCCs at rates up to $120,000 per day is not...
Sempra Starts Permitting 26-Mtpa Port Arthur LNG North Expansion That Could Double Gulf Coast Export Hub
Sempra Infrastructure has opened the federal permitting process for Port Arthur LNG North, a proposed four-train expansion in Southeast Texas that would add approximately 26 million tonnes per annum of nameplate LNG capacity, with...
Kongsberg Lands Full-Ship Systems Package for Solstad/SBM’s 4,000m Deepwater Newbuild
Kongsberg Maritime has secured a broad integrated-systems contract for the new multi-purpose deepwater installation and construction vessel being built for the 50.1% Solstad Offshore / 49.9% SBM Offshore joint venture at CIMC Raffles’ Haiyang...
FuelEU Methane Slip Measurement ROI – When Actual Engine Data Beats Default Factors
FuelEU methane slip ROI Methane slip measurement is becoming a financial decision, not only an emissions report Perhaps we should judge methane-slip reporting by avoided compliance cost, not only by environmental accuracy. FuelEU gives...
Gulf Bypass Buildout Accelerates as Hormuz Risk Rewrites Energy Logistics
Gulf states are moving faster to build around the Strait of Hormuz as shipping risk, insurance pressure and uneven traffic recovery turn the region’s main chokepoint into a long-term infrastructure problem. The UAE is...
Can Waste Heat Extend a Destroyer’s Range? 8 Numbers Behind the Navy’s New DDG-51 Energy-Recovery Push
DDG-51 energy recovery and range analysis Can waste heat extend a destroyer’s range? Perhaps the most useful way to look at the Navy’s new DDG-51 waste-heat requirement is not as a green technology story....
Drewry WCI Slips as Container Rates Enter a More Uneven Phase
Drewry’s latest World Container Index update shows the container market cooling slightly after three straight weekly gains, but this is not a clean reset lower. The composite index fell 1% to $4,473 per 40ft...
Cruise Ships May Be Throwing Away More Heat Than Fuel
Cruise Waste Heat Investment Map The best fuel-saving project may already be hot and leaving the ship Cruise waste heat is perhaps one of the most underpriced retrofit markets onboard a large passenger ship....
Sempra Seeks Permits for 27 Mtpa Port Arthur LNG Expansion That Could Double Texas Export Capacity
Sempra Infrastructure has started the federal permitting process for Port Arthur LNG North, a proposed four-train expansion of its LNG complex on the Sabine-Neches Waterway in Southeast Texas. The new project is designed for...
Should Your Next Ship Still Be LNG Dual-Fuel? 10 Numbers to Run Before Signing a Newbuild Contract
2027 Newbuild Decision Should Your Next Ship Still Be LNG Dual-Fuel? 10 Numbers to Run Before Signing a Newbuild Contract Höegh Autoliners ordering six more LNG dual-fuel Aurora-class car carriers is a reminder that...
IAEA Launches ATLAS to Bring Nuclear Power Back to Civilian Shipping as IMO Targets New Rules by 2030
Nuclear-powered merchant shipping moved a significant step closer to becoming an organized international industry on August 26 when the International Atomic Energy Agency launched ATLAS, Atomic Technologies Licensed for Applications at Sea, in Washington....
Turbo Blower vs Screw Compressor for Air Lubrication Net Fuel Savings
ALS net fuel savings The blower choice can turn a great air lubrication claim into an average retrofit Perhaps we should judge an air lubrication system by net fuel savings, not headline drag reduction....
Prize Courts Return to the Maritime Risk Map as U.S. Targets Seized Tankers
The U.S. administration’s move to revive prize courts could become one of the most unusual legal developments in modern shipping. Prize law is not a normal sanctions tool, port-state-control action or civil forfeiture case....
Should Every ASW Frigate Carry Its Own Unmanned Sonar Boat?
Future ASW frigate and offboard sonar report Should every ASW frigate carry its own unmanned sonar boat? I think the Netherlands has asked the right question first. Not whether uncrewed sonar boats are exciting,...
Black Sea Grain Pressure Builds as Sulina Queue Hits 70 Ships
The Black Sea grain corridor is under renewed pressure as vessels stack up near the Sulina Canal and Russian strikes continue to hit Ukraine’s port and grain export network. Reuters reported about 70 vessels...
Cruise Casino Technology ROI: The Square-Foot Case for Progressive Jackpots at Sea
Cruise Ship Casino Technology ROI The next casino floor upgrade may not be another slot bank I see MSC Cruises’ progressive blackjack deployment as a useful signal because it reframes the casino floor question....
Oil Slides on Hormuz Talks, but Tanker Risk Still Owns the Market
Oil prices moved lower as Iran-Oman talks gave traders a new reason to price in a possible partial reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The selloff makes sense at the headline level: if a...
Amazon Leo Is Coming to Ships: Should Owners Add another Satellite Network or Wait?
Maritime LEO connectivity Amazon Leo gives shipowners a new option, but the smartest first move may be a pilot, not a fleetwide swap I would treat Amazon Leo as a strategic third-network candidate rather...
Maritime AI Moves Beyond Pilots as Fleetwide Rollouts, Autonomous Ships and Smart Ports Accelerate
Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into day-to-day maritime operations, with several significant deployments announced during August rather than another wave of small technology demonstrations. On August 26, Eastern Pacific Shipping said it would expand...
Your Ballast Water System (BWMS) is Getting Old: 10 Repairs That Signal It May Be Time for a Major Upgrade
Ballast Water System Upgrade Test Your Ballast Water System Is 10 Years Old: 10 Repairs That Signal It May Be Time for a Major Upgrade A 10-year-old ballast water management system can look compliant...
Record $5.3M Panama Canal Bid Shows LPG Shipping’s New Queue Math
SK Gas has pushed Panama Canal priority pricing to a new record after agreeing to pay $5.3 million at auction so its LPG carrier G. Spirit can move northbound through the waterway on September...
Höegh Autoliners Orders Six More Aurora-Class Car Carriers as China Export Boom Tightens RoRo Capacity
Höegh Autoliners has placed firm orders for six additional 9,100-CEU Aurora-class PCTCs at China Merchants Heavy Industry Jiangsu, extending its Aurora program from 12 to 18 vessels, with the new ships scheduled for delivery...