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China Took 57.8% of Global LNG Carrier Orders in the First Half of 2026
Chinese builders captured 57.8% of the 90 LNG carrier orders placed worldwide in the first half of 2026, widening a gap that stood at 15 ships to 13 in the same period last year.
South Korea's Big Three Yards Are Running Above Their Rated Capacity
HD KSOE, Samsung Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean all ran at or above their nominal capacity in the first half of 2026, and are investing in docks, cranes and automation rather than new land.
Partial Strikes Begin at HD Hyundai's Ulsan Yard for the Fourth Year Running
Unionised workers at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries began a seven-hour stoppage on 2 September after mediators found the two sides far apart on pay and profit sharing.
Churchill Loads Its First Grain Cargo in Six Years as Arctic Traffic Returns
Canada's only Arctic deep-water port is loading grain again after a six-year gap, following its first critical minerals export in more than two decades.
Rotterdam Ship Handling Stops for Nearly Eight Hours on 4 September
No vessels will be handled at Rotterdam between 11:15 and 19:00 on 4 September, with Amsterdam and Zeeland also affected, ahead of a nationwide rail walkout on 9 September.
Maersk Puts a Single 35-Metre Rotor Sail on an 8,700 teu Container Ship
Maersk is taking wind-assisted propulsion into its container fleet for the first time, with a single 5-metre by 35-metre fixed rotor to be tested on North and South Atlantic routes.
Maersk Cuts Its Fossil Fuel Fee From 1 October and Resets Terminal Charges
Lower reference fuel prices feed into Maersk's fourth-quarter calculation, cutting the Fossil Fuel Fee on major trades from 1 October alongside a wide reset of terminal handling charges.
ZIM Returns to Quarterly Profit With $64m as the First Half Still Shows a Loss
ZIM posted net income of $64m for the second quarter on revenue of $1.78bn, but the carrier still recorded a $22m net loss across the first half as average freight rates fell to $1,455 per teu.
Turkey's Largest Regional Box Operators Suspend All Calls at Russian Ports
Akkon Lines has told customers it is suspending service to every Russian port including St Petersburg, after a drone strike wrote off its 1,096 teu RMS Team at Novorossiysk.
Puntland Disputes Mogadishu's Account of How the Cargo Ship Lutuf Was Freed
The Federal Government of Somalia says Turkish and Somali forces freed the MV Lutuf after a ten-day pursuit, while Puntland's security ministry says no rescue took place and a ransom was paid.
Ten Missing After Turkish Cargo Ship Is Feared Sunk in the Sea of Marmara
The 3,970 dwt Tugberk Imamoglu collided with the chemical tanker Alsu 18 nautical miles south of Silivri and is now believed to have sunk with all ten crew unaccounted for.
Two VLCCs Struck Minutes Apart in Hormuz as Washington Hits Iranian Tankers
The Sinokor-controlled Senegal Prosperity was hit by three projectiles minutes after the Bahri-managed Sidr was attacked, and US forces have begun striking Iranian state tankers in reply.
Maritime Briefing, 2 September 2026: Hormuz, Congestion, Korean Yards
Transits through Hormuz down to five a day, Drewry rejecting the port capacity argument, and two Korean yards bidding for American naval work.
Hanwha Ocean Certifies a Low-Carbon FPSO Design Ahead of the Venus Bid
The yard is competing with SBM Offshore for a $3bn FPSO contract on TotalEnergies' Venus development offshore Namibia, where emissions weigh heavily in the evaluation.
Wagenborg Puts Connectivity and Cybersecurity Onto 160 Ships at Once
The programme covers around 160 owned and managed general cargo vessels, treating onboard IT and security as fleet infrastructure rather than per-ship procurement.
Bremen and Bremerhaven Lift Container Volumes 5.7% as Hamburg Slips
Total seaborne throughput across the two locations rose 5.9% to 34.5m tonnes, with the sharpest relative gain at Bremen's city ports.
Russia Extends Its Diesel and Marine Fuel Export Ban to 30 September
Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure have squeezed the domestic fuel market, which is the stated reason for holding the barrels at home.
APM Terminals Breaks Ground on a $550m Terminal at Chattogram
The 30-year concession adds over 800,000 teu of annual capacity from 2030, with Bangladesh retaining ownership of the asset throughout.
HD Hyundai and Hanwha Take Their Shipbuilding Rivalry to US Yards
Hanwha 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 along the Texas Gulf Coast.
Search Suspended for Two Crew After French Trawler Sinks in the Channel
A helicopter, a fixed-wing aircraft, four RNLI lifeboats and a large number of civilian vessels searched for two days before the operation was suspended pending further information.
Drewry Puts Worsening Port Congestion Down to Utilisation, Not Capacity
A terminal running at 90% berth utilisation needs about a week to recover from a one-day disruption, against roughly two days at 75%, which is where the queues are coming from.
Two Managers Fined $1.75m Over Concealed Oily Water Discharges
MSC Shipmanagement and Hong Kong Spirit Shipping each pleaded guilty to two counts under US pollution law and were placed on four years of probation.
Icebreaker Nuyina Sent to Empty Macquarie Island Station Over Bird Flu
The Southern Ocean station sits among up to four million seabirds and 100,000 seals, and a strain that killed three-quarters of a season's pups on Heard Island is expected to arrive.
MAIB Traces the Holyhead Berthing Contact That Flooded Stena Estrid
The crew shored the hull below the waterline, pumped out the spaces and transferred ballast to lift the damage clear of the water, allowing all 157 people aboard to disembark normally.
Höegh Autoliners Fits GPS Interference Backup Across Its 38-Ship Fleet
The system provides an independent position when GNSS signals are disrupted, alerts bridge teams to interference and keeps a verified record of the route sailed.
Taylor Maritime Sells Three Handysizes as Its Chief Executive Buys In
Ed Buttery's T3 Holding is on the buyer side for around $32.2m of the deal, which the board and its sponsor judged fair and reasonable to shareholders.
Star Bulk Prepares an Athens Listing Alongside Its Nasdaq Quotation
The dry bulk owner posted a second-quarter net profit of $144.9m, its best quarter since 2022, and counts 138 owned vessels totalling 13.8m dwt.
Russia Puts a $116bn Price Tag on Its Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor
The RUB10trn programme covers ports, rail, inland waterways, an expanded nuclear icebreaker fleet and a much larger ice-class merchant fleet, split evenly either side of 2030.
Drone Strike Starts Fire at Ust-Luga as Yanos Refinery Halts Two Units
Ust-Luga handles crude, products, coal, LNG, gas condensate and fertilisers, and has now been targeted repeatedly since March, when at least eight storage tanks were destroyed or damaged.
Maersk Forecast to Slide to Fourth in the Liner Rankings by 2028
COSCO's orderbook has reached 52% of its existing fleet, the highest ratio in the top ten, while Maersk tries to accelerate into a record 14.84m teu global orderbook.
CENTCOM Disputes Iranian Mine Claims as Two More Tankers Are Hit
Iran says a supertanker on the southern route struck two sea mines; US Central Command calls the claim disinformation while confirming vessels are being hit by other means.
Maritime Briefing, 1 September 2026: Ferry Loss, Shadow Fleet, Record Congestion
A ferry lost off Cyprus, three shadow fleet stories in a week, 4.3m TEU waiting for a berth, and 400 ships still unable to leave the Persian Gulf.
MARAD Activates the Training Ship Empire State for Federal Service
The first activation of any National Security Multi-Mission Vessel takes the ship away from SUNY Maritime from around 1 September.
Bulker BAM Arion Sold at Auction in Rotterdam and the Crew Are Finally Paid
The ship had been under arrest in the Waalhaven since May, one of four vessels chained up after a Dutch state-backed financing came under fraud investigation.
Urals Crude Returns to VLCCs for Asia as Freight Costs Climb
Reduced Hormuz traffic and eased Venezuela measures have freed up part of the shadow VLCC fleet, opening the trade again.
Danish Yard Takes a Third Russian-Linked LNG Tanker Before the January Ban
The Boris Davydov has delivered at least 50 Yamal cargoes worth some $2.2bn since her last visit to the same yard in 2023.
Russia Opens Northern Sea Route Talks With India and Vietnam
The Arctic corridor cuts about 40 percent off the distance from Indian ports to Europe, and India is planning a first pilot transit in 2027.
IMO Says 400 Ships and 6,000 Seafarers Still Cannot Leave the Persian Gulf
Washington says the mines are cleared and the transit routes are open; tracking data shows a trickle of ships out and very few going back in.
Record 4.3m TEU Waiting for a Berth as Typhoons Hit Chinese Ports Again
Global container congestion has passed the Covid-era peak, with stranded capacity equal to 12.6 percent of the world container fleet.
Sinokor Buys 73 VLCCs for $6bn and Becomes the Largest Tanker Operator
The South Korean owner has spent as much on secondhand crude carriers in 2026 as the next eight largest tanker buyers combined.
IMO Says More Than 90 Seafarers Are Held as Piracy Returns to the Gulf of Aden
At least 15 attacks have been recorded this year against five in the whole of 2025, with the hijacking of the tanker Seamull on 20 August the most recent.
Yemeni Forces Destroy Houthi Drone Boat Outpost on the Red Sea Coast
The same class of craft was used against the bulk carriers Transworld Navigator and Tutor in June 2024, one of which sank with the loss of a crew member.
Dutch Ports Stop Work for Eight Hours in 4 September Strike
The port authority expects ships to wait at the berth and in the anchorage, on top of inland container waiting times already running near 60 hours.
Core Power and MARAD Sign Seven-Year Plan for 50 Nuclear Merchant Ships
Hulls would be built in Japan and Korea and fitted with BWX Technologies reactors at a US yard, with Corpus Christi named as a candidate site.
EU Mission Boards Tanker MV Sun in Sixth Shadow Fleet Interception
A boarding team went on to the MV Sun for a flag check on 30 August, the sixth shadow fleet vessel entered by EU operations in recent months.
Royal Navy Shadows Russian Escort Group Through the Channel
Russian activity around the UK is up 25 percent over the first eight months of 2026, and shadow fleet transits off Ireland's west coast have almost tripled.
VLCC Caroline Bezengi Still Leaking Crude off Oman After Ten Weeks
The sanctioned VLCC has been aground on the Hallaniyat Islands since late June, and the oil plume from her is still spreading to the north-east.
Filo Jet Ferry Capsizes off Cyprus With 267 on Board, Crew Charged
The high-speed catamaran began flooding minutes after leaving Girne and rolled over four nautical miles from shore; 237 people were pulled from the water.
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