Third Shadow Fleet Tanker Hit: Drone War Rewrites Black Sea Risk
Ukrainian sea drones have now disabled a third Russia-linked “shadow fleet” tanker in the Black Sea, following earlier strikes on the sanctioned tankers Kairos and Virat near Turkey and the latest hit on the...
AI-Powered Predictive Maintenance Systems Made Simple: 2026 Update
AI-powered predictive maintenance is the quiet glue behind a lot of “smart ship” slides right now: instead of reacting to alarms, owners are starting to stream vibration, pressure, temperature and control-system data into models...
Brussels tests how much terminal power MSC and BlackRock can hold in Barcelona
EU regulators have opened a full antitrust investigation into MSC’s terminal arm and BlackRock taking joint control of CK Hutchison’s deep sea container terminal in Barcelona. The Commission is worried the deal could push...
EU ETS Voyage Cost Lab: What Each Route Really Costs You in 2026
When shipowners talk about EU ETS costs, the conversation often stops at “X tonnes times carbon price.” In reality, the bill changes sharply by route, charterparty, and how much of a voyage is inside...
Global Trade Passes the 35 trillion dollar mark, with most of the value still moving by sea
Global trade in goods and services is on track to exceed 35 trillion dollars in 2025, around 7 percent higher than 2024 according to UNCTAD’s latest Global Trade Update. This new high comes even...
Crewdentials Review: Simplifying Crew Administration
Crewdentials is basically a digital wallet and compliance engine for crew data. Instead of certificates, IDs and sea service being scattered across inboxes and spreadsheets, it pulls everything into one structured profile for seafarers...
Autonomous Hull Cleaning Made Simple: 2026 Update
Frequent, autonomous hull cleaning is quietly becoming one of the most powerful fuel-saving tools in shipping. Small robots and robotic “skaters” are now grooming hulls in water, keeping biofouling at “just cleaned” levels and...
Ammonia Gets Bigger Tanks: China’s Gas Owners Line Up VLAC-Scale Bets
Chinese gas owner Tianjin Southwest Maritime is moving deeper into ammonia transportation with ammonia dual-fuel LPG carriers on order and a new cooperation on very large ammonia carrier designs, while Jiangnan Shipyard builds 90k-class...
Mare Safety Review: Keeping the Crew Safe and Vessels Compliant
Mare Safety sits in that tight space where “small craft” decisions quietly dictate the safety and uptime of much bigger assets. Their focus is fast rescue boats, MOB boats, daughter craft and workboats for...
CMA Shipping 2026 Review
North America’s shipping community sets its calendar in Stamford every March. CMA Shipping 2026 brings owners, charterers, financiers, class, brokers, and technology providers together for three focused days of market signals, practical sessions, the...
Canada’s Pacific LNG Era Locks In With Kitimat Phase One Complete
LNG Canada’s first phase at Kitimat has now reached full construction handover, with both liquefaction trains delivered and the plant already exporting cargoes from Canada’s west coast. That makes Canada a long term LNG...
Waste Heat Recovery System (WHRS / WHR) Made Simple: 2026 Update
Waste heat recovery is one of those unglamorous upgrades that quietly moves the needle. Big two-stroke engines still dump well over half of their fuel energy out of the funnel or into cooling water,...
China One Trillion Dollar Trade Surplus Reshapes Global Container Flows
China’s trade surplus hitting the one trillion dollar mark in 2025 is not just a macro headline. It reflects a shift in where Chinese exports are going, with softer volumes to the United States...
COSCO’s $7bn, 87-ship Megaprogram Rewires Future Capacity across Tankers, Bulk and Boxes
China COSCO Shipping has signed a framework with China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) for 87 new vessels worth more than RMB 50 billion, or a little over $7 billion. The program spans ultra large...
From Carbon to Chokepoints. Here are 17 Hidden Costs Shipowners are Mispricing in 2026 Budgets
Most 2026 fleet budgets are built around fuel curves, TCE targets and OPEX lines that feel familiar, while the real risk sits in a new layer of carbon costs, chokepoint detours and compliance traps...
e1 Marine Review: Hydrogen Power at Scale
e1 Marine is trying to sidestep one of the messiest parts of the hydrogen story: how you actually get fuel-cell grade hydrogen to a working vessel. Their pitch is to reform methanol and water...
Red Sea Lane Back In Play as CMA CGM Tests Suez Return
After almost a year of widespread container diversions around the Cape of Good Hope, CMA CGM is starting to route its INDAMEX service back through the Red Sea and Suez Canal on both headhaul...
Digital Twins Made Simple: 2026 Update
Digital twins have moved from buzzword to working tool on real ships and in real ports. Into 2026, owners are using “performance twins” of hull and machinery to trim fuel use and monitor fouling,...
FSB Security Checks and Hull Dives Slow Foreign calls at Russian Ports
Russia has tightened control of foreign ships calling at its ports, with new rules that require Federal Security Service (FSB) clearance for every arrival from a foreign port and allow for mandatory underwater hull...
HD Hyundai’s $2bn India Mega-Yard Aims to Reset Global Newbuild Map
HD Hyundai is reported to be preparing a multibillion-dollar greenfield shipyard project in southern India, with planned investment around $2bn. For owners and financiers, the significance is less about one site and more about...
VLCC, Capesize, Container: Which Segments Are Really Under-Ordered Going Into 2027?
Orderbook charts in 2025 tell three different stories: VLCCs are finally rebuilding after years of near zero fleet growth, dry bulk (including Capesize) is still relatively disciplined, and container owners are sitting on a...
Onboard Carbon Capture Systems Made Simple: 2026 Update
Onboard carbon capture has quietly shifted from PowerPoint to real hardware. By mid-2025, full-scale systems were running on ships like Solvang’s Clipper Eris and pilot units from Wärtsilä, Seabound, Langh Tech and others were...
Liner Heavyweights Circle ZIM as Takeover Battle Heats Up
Reports that Hapag-Lloyd has submitted a bid for ZIM, with MSC and Maersk also linked to possible offers, have pushed the Israeli carrier into the center of a major consolidation story. Any deal would...
HAV Group Review: Redesigning a Vessel’s Energy Profile
HAV Group sits where a lot of owners’ current headaches meet in one place: hull form and ship design, hybrid and electric propulsion, hydrogen energy systems, and ballast / water treatment. Instead of a...
Exchange Of Fire Off Yemen Puts Bab el Mandeb Back In The Spotlight
A bulk carrier transiting close to the Bab el Mandeb has reported an exchange of fire with around fifteen small boats about 15 nautical miles west of Yemen. According to UKMTO and security sources,...
Bulker Newbuild Tap Runs dry as orders sink to five-year low
Global contracting for new dry bulk carriers has dropped sharply in 2025, with just about 25 million dwt of bulker newbuildings ordered between January and November, a 54% year-on-year fall and the lowest level...
China Container Volumes Reset the Bar as Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan pass 90M TEU
Despite trade tensions and policy noise, China’s box volumes are still climbing. Shanghai has crossed the 50 million TEU mark for 2025 a month earlier than last year, while Ningbo-Zhoushan has passed 40 million...
Oceanology International 2026 (London) Review
London’s blue-tech community sets the table in March 2026. Oceanology International brings ocean scientists, subsea engineers, navies, energy developers, and autonomous systems builders into one hall to compare tools, share data, and plan real...
Ammonia for Ships Made Simple: 2026 Update
Ammonia has moved from whiteboard idea to real metal in the water. By early 2025 there were hundreds of ammonia-fuelled or “ammonia-ready” vessels in the orderbook, mostly carriers and bulkers, with the first deep-sea...
Capesize Earnings Break $45,000 As Year-End Tightness Bites
Capesize earnings have surged to their strongest levels in roughly two years, with the Baltic C5TC benchmark jumping around 16% in a single day to just under $45,000 per day and more than triple...