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Ventura Takes On Deep Value Driller and Lands $58m Petronas Job
Ventura Offshore will manage the drillship Deep Value Driller for Eldorado Drilling and has secured a one-well contract with Petronas in Indonesia worth around $58m.

Fujian Highton Seeks $295m Placement to Fund a 16-Ship Buying Programme
Fujian Highton Development is raising up to RMB2bn to fund 16 bulkers and multipurpose heavylift ships over three years, with the whole placement earmarked for vessel purchases.

Sanctioned Russian Roro Lady Mariia Reported Struck by Drones off Crete
The sanctioned Russian roro Lady Mariia was reportedly hit by drone-dropped munitions near Crete while heading east towards Syria. Neither side has confirmed the strike.

Panama Canal Postpones Neopanamax Draft Cut for a Second Time
The Panama Canal Authority has again deferred a planned reduction in Neopanamax draft, holding the maximum at 14.63 metres as Gatun Lake levels stay steady.

Wallenius Marine Puts Two Oceanbird Wing Sails on Car Carrier Way Forward
Wallenius Marine will retrofit two Oceanbird wing sails to the 2024-built car carrier Way Forward in 2027, the first commercial multi-wing installation of the technology.

Fire Breaks Out Aboard Icebreaker Admiral Makarov During St Petersburg Refit
A fire spread across roughly 80 square metres of the icebreaker Admiral Makarov while the 1975-built vessel lay under repair in St Petersburg. No injuries were reported.

Rosneft Ships First Vostok Oil Cargo Through New Sever Bay Arctic Port
Rosneft has begun exporting crude from the Vostok Oil development through the newly built Sever Bay terminal on the Taimyr Peninsula, loading its first shuttle tanker on 5 September.

Maritime Briefing, 7 September 2026: Hormuz, Congestion, Yard Money
Two seafarers dead aboard the VLCC Sidr, Jebel Ali falling out of the top ten container ports, and US East Coast box rates breaking $10,000 per FEU for the first time since 2022.

The Gulf War Strands the Historic Liner St Helena and Costs Her a New Career
Terra Nova Expeditions has abandoned plans to bring the retired RMS St Helena back into service, chartering a former G Adventures expedition ship instead for its first Antarctic season.

Juneau Keeps Its Five-Ship Cruise Cap Voluntary After a 5 to 4 Vote
The Juneau Assembly postponed an ordinance that would have turned its negotiated five large cruise ship daily limit into local law covering downtown berths and Douglas Island.

SeaDream Orders Its First New Yacht in 25 Years at a Chinese Cruise Yard
SeaDream Yacht Club will build a 151.2-metre newbuild at China Merchants Cruise Shipbuilding, its first new ship since the two vessels it has operated since the 1980s.

Xi and Sisi Agree a Third Phase for the Chinese Zone Beside the Suez Canal
Egypt and China agreed on 2 September to expand Chinese investment in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, deepening Beijing's position beside the waterway as the Hormuz conflict continues.

Up to 800 North Sea Workers Still Exceed the November Helicopter Weight Limit
New offshore travel rules taking effect in November cap clothed passenger weight at 124kg so that anyone can be winched to safety, and hundreds of workers are still above it.

Bipartisan Bill Would Extend the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion to US Mariners
Four House members have introduced legislation giving US merchant mariners in international trade the same tax treatment as other Americans working overseas.

Putin Inspects the Arc7 LNG Carrier Pyotr Stolypin at the Zvezda Yard
The Russian president visited the Zvezda complex at Bolshoy Kamen on 2 September to inspect an icebreaking LNG carrier built for a project whose scale has been cut back by sanctions.

North Sea PSV Spot Rates Pass £30,000 as Six Vessels Go on Project Work
Rates for North Sea platform supply vessels have risen sharply on a supply shortage, with spot fixtures above £30,000 in the UK sector and NKr300,000 in Norway.

NORDEN Issues the First Verified Maritime Emissions Reductions Under Book and Claim
NORDEN has delivered verified emissions reductions through the RSB Book and Claim registry, letting a cargo owner buy the benefit of sustainable fuel burned on someone else's voyage.

IMO Ends Another Net-Zero Session Divided, With Three Meetings Left in 2026
The IMO's latest working group closed after four days without a finalised text, deferring the lifecycle framework and pushing key decisions to a run of sessions in late November and early December.

Core Power Signs a Seven-Year MARAD Deal for 50 Nuclear-Powered Merchant Ships
A British nuclear energy company has agreed a seven-year programme with the US Maritime Administration to build a fleet of 50 nuclear-powered LNG tankers and container ships.

Anemoi Courts Korean Yards as Rotor Sails Move Onto Container Ships
The British wind propulsion company says several major Korean shipyards have approached it about integrating rotor sails, as it prepares the first planned installation on a container vessel.

Horizontal Turbines in Containers Begin Sea Trials on an Iceland Feeder
Sea trials have begun on a hybrid wind and solar system fitted to the 909 TEU containership Helgafell, using horizontally mounted turbines packaged inside shipping containers.

Regent's Viceroy Seaglider Makes Its First Flight With People On Board
Regent Craft says its Viceroy prototype is the largest all-electric wing-in-ground effect craft ever to fly with people aboard, marking the start of the programme's final stage of sea trials.

USS Abraham Lincoln Reaches Thailand After 286 Consecutive Days at Sea
The nuclear-powered carrier arrived in Thailand on 2 September after an extended deployment that included combat operations, with a crew that had gone more than 260 days without a full shore stop.

USS Delaware Surfaces at Tromso as Four Russian Submarines Go to Sea
The US Navy publicised the arrival of a Virginia class attack submarine in northern Norway during a summer in which one Russian boat after another has left the White Sea yards for trials.

Japan's 2027 Budget Request Points to Submarine-Launched Hypersonic Missiles
A preliminary defence budget request presented to the Diet refers to an underwater-launched, high-survivability missile that can be fired at an early stage and at long range.

HMS Bulwark Becomes NDM Olapoque as Sister Ship Albion Awaits Disposal
The Royal Navy's retired amphibious ship HMS Bulwark has been sold to Brazil and renamed, while HMS Albion remains alongside at Devonport in condition too poor for a sale.

COSCO Shipping Ports Handles 80.16m TEU as Overseas Volume Rises 18%
COSCO Shipping Ports reported first-half throughput of 80.16m TEU, up 7.9%, with EBITDA climbing 20.6% to $536m and an interim dividend of 2.360 US cents per share.

Oakland Signs for a $640m Turning Basin Widening to Take Longer Ships
The Port of Oakland has completed an agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers to widen and modernise its inner and outer harbour turning basins by 2030.

Den Breejen Shipyard Changes Hands After Almost Eighty Family Years
The Hardinxveld-Giessendam shipyard has been sold by the Den Breejen family to CCD, an investment vehicle formed by Ceylan Duzdusen together with Concordia and Damen.

Cochin Shipyard Cuts Steel on Four Battery-Electric Tugs for Svitzer
India's Cochin Shipyard has begun building four fully electric TRAnsverse 2600e harbour tugs for Svitzer, under an agreement signed in December 2025 covering a minimum of four vessels.

Yang Ming Signs for Six 13,650 TEU Dual-Fuel Boxships at Hanwha Ocean
Yang Ming has contracted six LNG dual-fuel container ships for delivery between 2028 and 2029, taking its next-generation fleet renewal programme towards 24 ships by 2030.

CSSC Takes a $1bn Car Carrier Order and Two More PCTCs for SFL at SMM
Guangzhou Shipyard International signed for 10 LNG dual-fuel pure car and truck carriers worth more than $1bn, with market sources naming Ray Car Carriers as the owner.

CSSC Net Profit Rises 163% as Its Order Backlog Reaches 729 Ships
China State Shipbuilding Corporation recorded first-half revenue of RMB91.53bn and net profit of RMB9.95bn, on higher deliveries of high-end vessels and rising average prices.

Japan Puts $3.8bn Behind Imabari, JMU and Namura in Its First Yard Tranche
Japan's transport minister has unveiled the first investments under a plan to double national shipbuilding volume by 2035, with a total programme of about $6.4bn in public and private money.

Indian Recyclers Are Bidding Into Losses as End-of-Life Tonnage Dries Up
High-standard Indian recycling facilities are bidding aggressively for the limited tonnage available even when the economics suggest a substantial loss at current steel prices.

Six Shipping Bodies Back Two Indian Yards for the EU Recycling List
BIMCO, ECSA, ICS, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO and the World Shipping Council have welcomed a European Commission proposal to add two Gujarat yards to the European List of Ship Recycling Facilities.

German Port Strike Deepens Congestion Already Holding 160,000 TEU at Anchor
A 48-hour warning strike at Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Emden and Brake landed on top of North European congestion already absorbing about 5% of deepsea containership capacity.

Samsung Seeks $186m From CMA CGM Over Store Door Delivery Failures
Samsung Electronics America has filed one of the largest post-pandemic regulatory claims against a container carrier, alleging unjust practices in inland transport and detention billing between 2020 and 2023.

Jebel Ali Falls Out of the Top Ten as Hormuz Rewrites the Port Ranking
The ten largest container ports finished 2025 in the same order as a year earlier, but 2026 returns covering 76% of the ranked volume show one port leaving the top ten entirely.

The Container Fleet Is About to Pass 34m TEU After Adding 10m in Five Years
Global containership capacity stood 8,000 TEU short of 34m at the start of September, having taken five and a half years to add the 10m TEU that previously took more than a decade.

US East Coast Box Rates Break $10,000 as Panama Cuts Daily Transits Again
The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index reached a 25-month high of 3,509.53 points, with Shanghai to US East Coast rates breaching $10,000 per FEU for the first time since 2022.

SMIT Salvage Refloats the Anchor Handler Skandi Amazonas Off Macae
The stranded anchor handler Skandi Amazonas has been patched, refloated and towed clear off the coast of Macae in Brazil after striking a rock and being beached to save her.

Bunker Tanker Drifts From Its Tugs and Wedges Against a Johor Road Bridge
A small Malaysian product tanker being relocated at a Johor shipyard escaped the tug moving her, drifted down the Johor River and came to rest against the Sungai Johor Bridge.

Navigation Warning Issued After a Feeder Loses 46 Containers Off Batangas
The Philippine Coast Guard has warned shipping in one of its busiest lanes after the 564 TEU Span Asia 39 lost 46 empty containers overboard in rough weather.

Chemical Leak at Mersin Port Affects 35 People After Machine Topples on a Box
Heavy equipment fell onto a container at Mersin International Port before dawn on 4 September, releasing what is believed to be ethyl acrylate and halting terminal operations.

Master and Third Officer of the Tanker Alsu Arrested Over the Marmara Collision
A Turkish court has charged the captain and third officer of the tanker Alsu with negligent homicide after the cargo ship Tugberk Imamoglu sank within ten minutes with ten crew aboard.

Rotterdam Terminal Workers Face Prison After a Controlled Cocaine Delivery
Dutch prosecutors are seeking up to 3.5 years for two men accused of using temporary terminal jobs in Waalhaven to retrieve cocaine first intercepted in St Maarten in April.
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