News

Hurricane Beryl made its third landfall near Matagorda, Texas on Monday morning, delivering high winds and torrential rain to America's biggest oil and gas-producing region. Two people were killed by falling trees, adding to the storm's previous death toll in Venezuela, Grenada, Jamaica and St. Vincent.

With a growing orderbook that is already at record levels and an overheated charter and secondhand market, the container shipping segment is going through rapid changes. The market has expanded to its largest overall capacity with significant additions still in the works while MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company has pulled away from the pack and continues to grow.

Schedule reliability for the container segment rebounded from the lows of January and April to reach the highest point in 2024. While the industry has been able to stabilize after the shocks caused by the Red Sea diversions, it remains far behind its post-pandemic while Maersk is warning customers that the pain is going to continue.

The first ship-to-ship transfer of ammonia was completed last week demonstrating the potential for the shipping of ammonia as well as hydrogen as future fuel sources. Trafigura Group, the global commodities trader that contracted for the shipment, highlights that current regulations for ship-to-ship transfers were only recently widely adopted by the ammonia industry.

Tirranna, a pure car truck carrier owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen, is another step closer to getting a first-of-a-kind wing sail from Oceanbird. The careful work of installing the sail's foundation on Tirranna, which is serving as a testbed for the groundbreaking wind-assisted technology, was performed during the vessel’s five-year docking at IMC Shipyard in Zhoushan, China.

Shipping giant Angelicoussis Group, which has a fleet of 141 ships operating under Maran Gas, Maran Tankers, and Maran Dry brands, is starting what is being called a landmark effort toward sustainability.

At no time since the end of World War II have so many nations fielded blue water navies that have roamed the globe. Navies from Australia, China, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have regional and worldwide commitments.

Barely seven months after imposing a one-year port ban on foreign research ships, Sri Lanka has said it will lift this restriction from 2025. During an official visit to Japan last week, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told the state-owned news agency NHK that the reversal of the ban is to ensure Sri Lanka has a neutral voice in the dispute of others.

A contract signing ceremony took place yesterday, June 26, in China for the first five methanol conversions planned for Seaspan’s containership fleet. COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry will undertake the projects starting in 2026 on vessels operating under long-term charters to Hapag-Lloyd.

The city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands has reached an agreement on steps to begin limiting the number of cruise ship calls at the port as of 2026. It is part of a larger plan to ultimately remove the cruise terminal from the city and manage the influx of tourists into the city. 

The Panama Canal Authority is accelerating its efforts to build back capacity at the canal while also providing for increased vessel draft as the region is now in the rainy season. While the canal is returning to normal levels the authorities however warn that the long-term impact of climate variability and the challenges of securing water remain.

The startup Blue World Technologies is reporting it achieved a breakthrough by demonstrating the first high-power maritime fuel cell system to run on green methanol. Maersk is an investor in the company and has committed to the first pilot system installation which is expected in 2026.

During a press briefing on Tuesday in Manila, the Department of Migrant Workers detailed the steps it plans to take to expand its previous directives to the shipping industry to expand the safety protections for its citizens working aboard commercial ships in response to the latest escalations by the Houthi militants in Yemen.

SAS Shipping Agencies Services Sàrl, a wholly owned subsidiary of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, reported late today June 26 that it has received more than 93.5 percent of the shares of Gram Car Carriers in its ongoing recommended voluntary cash offer to acquire the company and enter the car carrier business.

The first of the Aurora class of car carriers being built in China for Hoegh Autoliners has begun sea trials ahead of delivery and entry into service in August. With a capacity of 9,100 CEU, the vessel will be the largest yet built and will also be powered by a multi-fuel engine using LNG and ready for methanol or ammonia.

Chinese LNG specialist Wison New Energies has become the first Chinese shipyard to leave the Russian market, abandoning its lucrative role in Novatek's giant Arctic LNG 2 project. The firm announced its decision in a LinkedIn post last week. 

The Vineyard Wind 1 project passed a key milestone today becoming the largest operating offshore wind farm in the United States. Being developed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, project developers Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners celebrated reaching 136 MW on their way to a total capacity of 806 MW.

The pace of uptake for methanol-fueled operations is even surpassing the expectations of the industry from just a few years ago. X-Press Feeders which is preparing for the launch of a methanol-fueled feeder network in northern Europe this year has decided to convert several of its vessels from methanol-ready to methanol operations immediately.

The long-running battle between Damen and the Romanian government over the operations of the Mangalia shipyard on the Black Sea took a new step as a court in Constanta initiated an insolvency procedure.

China's navy is conducting amphibious drills in the South China Sea as tensions rise over control of the Philippine exclusive economic zone,  over five hundred nautical miles away from the Chinese mainland.