Maritime Briefing, 2 September 2026: Hormuz, Congestion, Korean Yards

Iran says a supertanker on the southern route struck two sea mines; US Central Command calls the claim disinformation while confirming that vessels are being hit by other means. Two tankers were struck inside 48 hours, the IRGC says 30 vessels have been turned back since 22 August, and weekend transits have fallen to roughly five ships a day against 14 on the Friday.

The French trawler Maranello sank south-west of the Eddystone after reporting a problem with her fishing gear. Another trawler took three of the five crew off before she went down; the search for the remaining two was suspended after two days.

Average ship waiting times have nearly doubled since 2019 and time in port is up 31%, but terminal capacity across nine major ports grew 21% against 28% volume growth. A berth at 90% utilisation needs about a week to recover from one day of disruption, against two days at 75%.

Maersk is forecast to fall behind both COSCO and CMA CGM by 2028, with fleet growth of 2% a year since 2018 against 11.7% among competitors and a global orderbook now at a record 14.84m teu.

A 13 August memorandum eases the bar on building US Navy vessels overseas for yards that buy into a US shipyard. Hanwha already owns Philly Shipyard and has bid up to $1.2bn for Austal's US arm; HD Hyundai has been examining yards in San Diego and on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Russia says it needs RUB10trn by 2035 for ports, rail, inland waterways, an expanded nuclear icebreaker fleet and a much larger ice-class merchant fleet, targeting 110m to 150m tonnes of cargo against roughly 37m today.