Japan’s Shipowners Need 12M GT of New Ships a Year. Domestic Yards Built Only 9M GT in 2024
Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has put unusually clear numbers around a widening maritime-industrial dependency. Japanese shipowners have been ordering roughly 12 million gross tons of new ships per year on...
Maritime Cyber Risk Outlook: Credential Attacks, OT Exposure and GNSS Spoofing Reshape Shipping Threats
Maritime cyber risk is shifting from isolated malware and ransomware events toward a broader operational problem involving identity compromise, connected shipboard OT, third-party remote access and corrupted navigation data. Marlink’s 2026 field data found...
Maritime AI Outlook 2026-2030: Shipping Moves From Pilots to Fleet-Scale Deployment
Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into day-to-day maritime operations as shipping companies, ports and shipbuilders shift from isolated trials toward fleet deployment, autonomous decision support and AI-enabled machinery control. Lloyd’s Register says 420 organizations...
Maritime Fuel Outlook: Bunker Prices Stay High Through Q4, With 2027 Relief Dependent on Middle East Recovery
Marine fuel costs are likely to remain elevated through the final quarter of 2026 before easing progressively during 2027, but the path is unusually dependent on Middle East export recovery, refinery availability and depleted...
Secondhand Ship Market Outlook: Tankers Lead Asset Surge as 2027 Supply Risks Build
Secondhand ship values are entering the final quarter of 2026 at elevated levels across most major shipping sectors, but the market is increasingly split by vessel type. Clarksons Research says average secondhand asset pricing...
Maritime Logistics Outlook: Congestion Is Hiding a 2027 Capacity Surge
Global maritime logistics is entering an unusual transition. Container shipping remains operationally tight in late 2026: Drewry’s World Container Index stood at $4,434 per 40-foot container on October 1, global schedule reliability fell to...
Ship Bunker Costs Stay Elevated as VLSFO Averages $876.50/mt and MGO Reaches $1,500/mt
Ship fuel costs remain elevated entering the fourth quarter, with Ship & Bunker’s latest full October 6 snapshot putting its 20-port average at $876.50 per metric tonne for VLSFO, $751.50 for HSFO and $1,500...
South Korea Launches Marine SMR Demonstration Center as Nuclear Merchant Ships Move Toward Hardware Testing
South Korea’s shipbuilding and nuclear sectors have created a 12-organization SMR Marine Technology Demonstration Center intended to move marine nuclear systems beyond conceptual design and into coordinated development, testing, verification and demonstration. HD Hyundai...
LNG Carrier Freight Rates Collapse 83%-91% From Wartime Peaks as Vessel Supply Surges
Spot LNG-carrier freight rates have surrendered almost all of the extraordinary premium created by the Iran war as vessel availability rises and more U.S. cargoes remain within the shorter Atlantic Basin. Spark Commodities assessed...
Black Sea Drone Attack Sinks Merchant Ship in Bulgaria’s EEZ; Search for 10 Crew Called Off
Bulgaria has ended the search for the 10 crewmembers of the Togo-flagged general cargo ship Alfa Watan, which sank after a combined aerial- and maritime-drone attack inside Bulgaria’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone on...
Trafigura Buys Seven Chartered Tankers as SFL Crystallizes $175M Asset Gain
SFL Corporation has agreed to sell seven tankers directly to Trafigura, closing out a five-year charter-and-asset strategy that began when tanker values were depressed in 2021. The transaction covers four 115,000-dwt LR2 product tankers...
Anduril and Navy Commit $6.6B to New Submarine Industrial Yard as Virginia Production Lags Target
Anduril Industries will build a new 187-acre, more than 2-million-square-foot submarine manufacturing complex at Sparrows Point, Maryland, backed by $3.7 billion of Anduril private capital and an up-to-$2.9 billion U.S. Navy production contract, creating...
Secondhand Ship Values Surge as 20-Year-Old VLCC Vadin Nearly Doubles to $117M
Secondhand vessel prices have risen across several major shipping segments, with the sharpest repricing concentrated in crude tankers. Splash reported on October 6 that the 2006-built VLCC Vadin, acquired from Mitsui O.S.K. Lines for...
ADNOC L&S Orders Three 90,000-cbm VLGCs for $324 Million With Seven-Year Employment Already Secured
ADNOC Logistics & Services has ordered three 90,000-cubic-meter Very Large Gas Carriers for $324 million, adding 270,000 cbm of LPG shipping capacity to one of the fastest-growing energy-shipping fleets in the Middle East. The...
Panama Canal Extends Long-Term Reservations to Panamax Locks With 288 Dry-Season Slots
The Panama Canal Authority will extend its Long-Term Slot Allocation program to the Panamax locks for the first time, offering 51 packages containing 288 transit slots for booking dates from January 3 through April...
GAO Says Navy Shipyard Overhaul Could Top $200B and Stretch Beyond 2080
The U.S. Navy’s plan to rebuild its four public nuclear-ship maintenance yards has expanded from an estimated $21 billion over 20 years in 2018 to more than $200 billion across more than five additional...
Two Merchant Ships Hit by Air and Sea Drones off Bulgaria; One Sinks With Crew Missing
Two merchant ships were attacked by air and sea drones early Tuesday, October 6, inside Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea, in what Bulgarian officials described as the first direct attack on...
Europe Faces 760-Connection Shore-Power Gap Ahead of 2029 TEN-T Deadline
Europe’s new TEN-T corridor work plans expose a large shore-power buildout still required before the end of 2029. The European Commission published the first generation of plans under the revised TEN-T framework on September...
Alaska LNG Says Asia Shipping Costs Could Be 65% Below U.S. Gulf, Testing Whether Geography Can Offset a $54.5B Build
Alaska LNG developer Glenfarne says the cost of shipping LNG to Asia from its proposed Alaska project could be at least 65% lower than shipping from the U.S. Gulf Coast, putting transportation economics at...
Could a 137-Million-GT Ship Registry Become Nearly Instant? Singapore Plans AI Registration in Minutes
Singapore plans to launch an AI-assisted ship registration system in the first half of 2027 that the Maritime and Port Authority says will reduce processing time for standard applications from as much as three...