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Daily maritime briefing

Tuesday, 13 October 2026

Bulgaria drone sinking, DF Peak boarded, Hormuz warning

Black Sea strikes, a shadow fleet boarding in the Indian Ocean, Iran's dark-ship warning and the Red Sea return, on 13 October 2026

8 stories5 sections7 min readVessel Hunter newsroom
01

Conflict and security

9 stories

The US Treasury has authorised the sale, delivery and import of Russian-origin diesel, including into the United States, until 7 April 2027 under General License 135

President Donald Trump said Russia would supply more than 300,000 tonnes at once, 500,000 tonnes in November and 1 million tonnes after that, with up to 3 million tonnes more depending on the state of Russian refineries. US diesel has risen about 70% to $6.28 a gallon.

The EU imported a record 12.18m tonnes of LNG from Russia's Yamal project in the first nine months of 2026,

in 167 cargoes worth an estimated €7.88bn, or 85% of the project's deliveries by volume, in Urgewald's analysis of Kpler data. The EU ban on remaining long-term contracts takes effect on 1 January 2027, and the US must implement vessel sanctions under the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act by 18 October.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have asked for an EU-wide ban on the transit of Russian grain

in a joint letter to European Council President António Costa and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The Philippines counted 101 Chinese navy and coast guard ships around Philippine-held features in the South China Sea in September,

nearly double the 56 of August.

An Ecuadorian judge has acquitted 32 crew members of the fishing boats Conquista 2 and María Candelaria,

two of eight vessels sunk by the US military with Ecuador's cooperation between 28 August and 16 September. Two more trials involving 56 crew are pending.
02

Casualties and investigations

2 stories
**All crew were rescued after a fire on the Cyprus-flagged research vessel Rem Andes about 100 nautical miles south of Grand Isle, Louisiana,** which was put out on 12 October. The crew abandoned ship in life rafts and were picked up by offshore supply vessels.

The Philippine labour department has opened an inquiry into the ferry June Aster, which caught fire off Coron on 9 September with the loss of 77 of the 128 people on her manifest

It found labour standards violations worth P665,873.85 and missing safety programmes at the operator, Atienza Interisland Ferries. The Philippine Coast Guard says the manifest included people who never boarded.
03

Markets, deals and fleets

8 stories

The ClarkSea Index rose 12% in a week to $84,951 a day,

its fifth consecutive record. Only 273 ships of 5.5m gt were sold for demolition in the first nine months of 2026, the longest sustained recycling slump in more than half a century.

South Korean shipyards took 2.64m CGT of orders in the third quarter, 39.7% less than in the second,

while China's orders fell 23.8%. China holds 76.2% of this year's orders against Korea's 15.5%. A newbuild VLCC costs $131m and an LNG carrier $246.5m.

Star Bulk is selling a 35% stake in the 2026-built kamsarmaxes Star Ellie and Star Bella to Itochu's Hermes World Maritime

and keeps their commercial and technical management. CMB.TECH has sold the 2011-built Suezmax Stella of 165,000 dwt for a gain of about $59.6m.

Danaos is exploring a carve-out of its large bulker business, and Cetus Maritime has hired Clarksons Securities, DNB Carnegie and Nordea for a Euronext Growth Oslo listing

Robin Energy bought 90,000 shares in the private placement of Volare Shipping at NOK154.

Liu Jichun's Ocean Vivo has offered HK$2.21 a share for the Hong Kong-listed asphalt tanker owner Xin Yuan Enterprises,

valuing the company at up to HK$771m ($99m). China's largest private steelmaker Shagang has registered a shipbuilding subsidiary in Tianjin with RMB70m of capital.

A.P. Moller-Maersk's market value has passed $50bn,

after Ocean EBIT rose to $935m in the second quarter from $229m. Maersk has raised its emergency fuel surcharge on inland transport in the UK and Ireland to 20% from 12 October.

Venture Global has lost its LNG supply arbitration with Galp,

its second defeat after BP; Shell and Repsol lost their cases and a ruling in Orlen's is due by the end of the year.
**Wärtsilä has a five-year service agreement for Viking Line's Viking XPRS,** the third Viking Line ferry under such a contract.
04

Ports, routes and trade

9 stories
**Malaysia's customs department now enforces a No Manifest, No Load rule at Westports, Northport and Tanjung Pelepas.** Shipping instructions must reach carriers at least 48 hours before the ship's ETA, or containers may be rolled to a later sailing.

US retailers expect imports to level off at 2.25m TEU in October and about 2m TEU in November and December,

after 2.28m TEU in September.

Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency has issued MGN 719,

telling shipowners that satellite navigation can no longer be taken for granted in some of the busiest shipping regions and urging crews to practise navigating without GPS.

The five Dutch seaports have asked the EU to turn its European Port Strategy into funded measures,

including clear rules on who pays for and secures dual-use port infrastructure.

AAL Shipping has completed nine voyages carrying 188 steel bridge segments, 60,500 revenue tonnes in all, from Taicang to Melbourne

for the North East Link road project; the heaviest piece weighed 113 tonnes.

Hamburg handled about 550,000 TEU of hinterland traffic with the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2025, 95% of it by rail

Petr Kryštof has taken over the port's Prague representative office from Vladimír Doboš.
**The Lerwick Port Authority expects to finish dredging Lerwick harbour this month,** with 14.5 metres alongside the Dales Voe quay.
05

Shipbuilding, offshore and naval

9 stories

HD Hyundai has delivered a 13,000 TEU methanol-fuelled containership to CMA CGM with its hybrid lashing-free system,

which extends cell guides above deck and raises allowable deck cargo weight by more than 10%.

Kuzey Star Shipyard of Türkiye has been selected to buy Croatia's Uljanik Brodogradnja 1856,

and Morocco has cancelled its concession tender for the Casablanca shipyard.

Damen has launched CSOV9020, to be named TSS Challenger, for Taiwan's Ta San Shang Marine,

for delivery in the first half of 2027. McAllister Towing has taken delivery of Mary McAllister, the sixth of seven 84-tonne bollard pull tugs from Washburn & Doughty.
**Seadrill's drillship West Carina has a contract in Indonesia worth about $420m,** and Shell has awarded Transocean Norge two wells off Norway, about 120 days of work. Shell is taking 30% of Equinor's $9.8bn Bay du Nord project off Newfoundland ahead of a decision in early 2027.

BW Energy has $208m of lease financing for the Akoum wellhead platform off Gabon,

DOF has a North Sea subsea decommissioning contract, and TGS and SLB will shoot the 11,200 sq km Pelotas Sul Phase 2 survey off Brazil.

Ørsted is buying the remaining 49.9% of Gunfleet Sands 1 and 2 for about £15m,

and RWE has left the Five Estuaries project.

The Dutch submarine Walrus left Den Helder for scrapping on 12 October,

on the barge H-331 towed by Eems Warrior. The destroyer USS Arleigh Burke has gone into dry dock at Navantia in Cádiz, the first such overhaul for a US destroyer based in Europe.

Every story in this edition

8
  1. 01Azov Concord sinks and Chelsea 3 is hit as drones strike two ships off Bulgaria
  2. 02French Navy boards sanctioned tanker DF Peak 450 miles south of Réunion
  3. 03IRGC says ships running dark in Hormuz will be treated as hostile after Al Maqam strike
  4. 04US fighter jet disables bulker Ocean Molica as she tries to run the Iran blockade
  5. 05Red Sea container transits hit post-crisis high as ONE sends FE1 and IOX back via Suez
  6. 06Singapore LNG starts building third jetty for 2m tonnes a year of bunker reloads
  7. 07Boskalis heavy-lift ship Forte delivers SpaceX's Starship Ship 40 to Brownsville
  8. 08Bulgaria drone sinking, DF Peak boarded, Hormuz warning
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Bulgaria drone sinking, DF Peak boarded, Hormuz warning