News

The Asyad Group, Oman’s state-owned integrated logistics group, is planning to acquire an additional 33 vessels to add to the mixed fleet operated by its subsidiary Asyad Shipping.

India has firmed up its ambition to become a global maritime powerhouse, with the government allocating around $6 billion to the shipping sector in the 2025-26 fiscal year. On Saturday, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented to Parliament budget documents, revealing billions of dollars the government intends to spend in upgrading the country’s maritime infrastructure.

Eurobulk, a Greek shipping company, has become the latest to plead guilty in the continuing U.S. enforcement efforts to prevent pollution from ships. The company pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Texas on Wednesday, January 29, and was ordered to pay a total of $1.5 million and serve a four-year probation.

Navantia UK announced plans to invest in Harland & Wolff’s facilities to strengthen Britain’s defense, maritime, and clean energy industrial capabilities after the Spanish parent company completed the acquisition of the four UK shipyards including the historic Belfast, Northern Ireland facility.

On Wednesday night, a commuter jet and an Army helicopter collided and fell into the Potomac River, killing 67 people. Search and recovery operations are under way to recover the deceased, with assistance from U.S. Coast Guard boat detachment and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The head of Bulgarian shipping company Navibulgar maintains that the bulker Vezhen accidentally "leaked" anchor chain out past the chain stopper in rough weather, and that any damage that the vessel may have inflicted to a subsea cable between Gotland and Latvia was not an act of sabotage.

The accumulation of Russian cargo at the base in December; the sealift ships' long and expensive ballast voyage to Syria; the ships' appearance alongside the military pier; and the simultaneous disappearance of the vessels and the cargo all appear to confirm an evacuation of military equipment.

The project to deploy the first wind-powered Ro-Ro as part of an innovative program for sustainable shipping moved a step closer to reality. Turkish shipbuilder RMK Marine reported today, January 29, that the hull of the Neoliner Origin has been floated for the first time.

The first containership in a new express service between China’s Ningbo port and Germany arrived at the terminal in Wilhelmshaven as part of an effort to build China’s maritime trade routes.

Containership schedule reliability absorbed the shocks from the diversions away from the Red Sea and leveled off despite the demands on capacity and the longer travel times. Sea-Intelligence published its end-of-year report which tracked reliability across 34 different trade routes and showed consistency for much of 2024 after losing significantly from the progress achieved in 2023.

In December, the aging river-sea tanker Volgoneft-212 sank in a severe storm about five nautical miles outside of the Kerch Strait. Sister ship Volgoneft-239 broke up shortly after, and her stern section drifted aground on a rocky shore off Taman. The battered hull began leaking large quantities of fuel oil. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in California today, January 27, announced indictments and arrests breaking up an elaborate smuggling operation that they estimate smuggled at least $200 million worth of counterfeit and illegal goods from China into the U.S. through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The competition to deliver the first ammonia-fueled engine continues to report progress with Swiss-based WinGD now reporting it expects to complete final validation in time for the first engine deliveries in June 2025.

MARAD’s program to build the first modern training ships for the U.S. merchant marine marked about milestone with the floating of the fourth vessel of the class. The future Lone Star State which has been assigned to Texas A&M Maritime College took to the water for the first time on Friday, January 24, and was towed to the outfitting berth.

The Port of Los Angeles has cemented its status as the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere thanks to a significant surge in throughput last year. 2024 marked the second-best year in its 117-year history in terms of container volumes.

A Russian-registered product tanker languishing in the Port of Gdynia is drawing renewed interest from Polish authorities. According to a report on Poland’s Radio ZET, new security concerns as well as safety issues with the tanker were raised in light of the ongoing investigation in Finland into the Eagle S tanker and a lack of maintenance on the vessel which has been docked in Gdynia since 2017.

One of the sisterships to the containership Dali which destroyed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge is reporting engine troubles in the Pacific. The vessel which is also managed by Synergy Marine and sailing under charter as the Maersk Saltoro is reported to have experienced an engine problem which is delaying the ship and risking a cargo of Chilean cherries bound for China.

The boom in containership construction and the transition to alternative fuels continues with South Korea’s HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering reporting its first order of 2025. The shipbuilder which is part of HD Hyundai booked an order valued at approximately $2.58 billion which is being widely linked to French shipping giant CMA CGM Group.

The Canadian-flagged bulker Manitoulin became stuck midday on Wednesday, January 22, in the ice outside Buffalo, New York on Lake Erie. The crew took it in stride and while the vessel was waiting for the arrival of a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker had a little fun posting their destination on the AIS signal as “exasperated sigh.”

Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard saved the crew of the fishing vessel Miss Sandy when the vessel began to flood off Gloucester, Massachusetts. Efforts to combat the flooding were unsuccessful, but all were rescued before the vessel went down.