2026 Container Downcycle Playbook: 12 Signals Rates Are Slipping Further
Spot rates do not usually roll over for one reason. They slip when multiple “tone” indicators line up at the same time: benchmarks trend down, front haul lanes soften together, and carriers start pulling...
Bunker Procurement Platforms and E-bunkering: 2026 Buyers Guide
Bunker procurement platforms and e-bunkering are getting attention because they compress a messy workflow into a repeatable cycle: plan stems, invite quotes, compare offers with a paper trail, then push confirmations and delivery documentation...
Venezuelan crude returns to Europe as Repsol cargos restart under Trafigura-linked supply
Venezuelan barrels are moving back into Europe again, with cargoes tied to Repsol and arranged through Trafigura showing up in shipping schedules and tracking, including roughly 2 million barrels heading to Spain. In parallel,...
Panama Canal Port Concessions Face Arbitration as China Retaliates
Panama’s Panama Canal port dispute has moved from a legal ruling into a live governance and geopolitics problem. After Panama’s Supreme Court annulled the long-running concession held by a CK Hutchison unit for the...
Container Rate Tone Weakens Again (Drewry WCI Drops to $1,959, Blank Sailings Rise Into LNY)
Drewry’s World Container Index fell 7% to $1,959 per 40ft for 05 Feb 2026, marking a fourth straight weekly decline. Drewry also flagged softer pre Lunar New Year demand and a sharper use of...
Gastech Bangkok 2026 Review
Bangkok becomes the meeting point for the gas and LNG ecosystem in September 2026, with hydrogen, climate tech, and AI in energy pulled into the same conversation. If you are tracking supply, contracting, shipping,...
MSC Giada III Explosion and Fire Near St Petersburg: MSC Feeder Disabled in Gulf of Finland
An MSC-operated feeder, MSC Giada III, suffered an engine-room explosion followed by a fire while inbound for the St Petersburg area via the Gulf of Finland, triggering a response that included rescue assets and...
Kaiko Systems Review: Inspections, structured and ready to prove
Kaiko Systems is built for a very specific operational bottleneck: inspections and shipboard checks still generate a lot of manual work, photos, and follow-up actions that get messy between ship and shore. Their angle...
Top Maritime Law Firms by Region in 2026
Global shipping disputes tend to concentrate around a few legal hubs, and the UK and Ireland section is where a lot of readers will start because English law and London arbitration sit behind a...
SCR systems for NOx reduction in Ships: 2026 Pros and Cons
SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) is still the main “Tier III workhorse” for cutting ship NOx in emission control areas. It injects urea (DEF/AdBlue) into the exhaust, generating ammonia that reacts over a catalyst to...
Maersk Ocean Turns Loss in Q4 2025 as Job Cuts Signal Harder Container Cycle
Maersk reported its Ocean business moved into the red in the final quarter of 2025, alongside a plan to cut about 1,000 roles as carriers shift from expansion posture to tighter cost control. The...
EU “Made in EU” Shipbuilding Policy Moves Closer: Procurement Preference and Financing Signals for EU-Built Vessels
A draft European Commission package, reported by Reuters, indicates the EU is moving closer to “Made in EU” style policy for shipping and shipbuilding, with language that would steer public buyers to weigh non-price...
Insurer Alert Turns Bangladesh Port Disruption Into a Formal Risk Workflow
NorthStandard issued a fresh advisory warning that Bangladesh port operations are being disrupted by an escalating labour strike, including a note that container vessels risk sailing without booked export cargo. When a P&I club...
Arc7 LNG carrier Alexey Kosygin makes first Saam FSU delivery as Arctic LNG logistics tighten
Russia’s Arc7 ice-class LNG carrier Alexey Kosygin has been reported making its first delivery to the Saam floating storage unit (FSU) in the Kola Bay area, a concrete datapoint that Russia’s Arctic LNG logistics...
Inland Marine Expo 2026 Review
IMX is one of the few U.S. trade shows built around the inland and intracoastal operating reality, towing and barge, fleeting, terminals, shipyards, dredging, and the vendors that keep those assets working. If you...
Smart Reefer Containers: Pros, Cons, and What Actually Works in 2026
Smart reefer containers in 2026 are not just “a reefer with GPS”. They are reefers with telemetry that can push temperature, humidity, ventilation settings, alarms, and sometimes controlled-atmosphere status into a platform so operators...
Cargo theft and freight fraud rising as IUMI and TAPA issue new 2026 warning
IUMI and TAPA EMEA are warning that cargo theft and freight fraud are climbing across supply chains, with criminals increasingly blending physical theft with digitally enabled deception (including bogus carrier identities and “phantom” pickup...
12 Cash-Flow “Leak Points” in Container Ownership That Kill Equity Returns
Container ownership rarely dies from one dramatic mistake. It usually bleeds out through small, repeatable cash drains that show up between fixtures, at redelivery, in the yard, or inside clauses that looked “standard” until...
Iranian Gunboats Challenge U.S.-Flagged Stena Imperative in Strait of Hormuz
A U.S.-flagged tanker, Stena Imperative, was approached by Iranian fast craft while transiting the Strait of Hormuz north of Oman, according to maritime and security reporting. The encounter included demands to stop and the...
Chokepoint Enforcement Turns Operational (Malaysia STS Crackdown Shows Real Boarding and Delay Risk)
Malaysia’s maritime enforcement action off Penang shows how “illegal STS” scrutiny is functioning like an operational variable, not background noise. Two tankers were detained over a suspected unauthorized ship to ship crude transfer, crude...
U.S. Approves Texas GulfLink Deepwater Crude Export Port License, Up to 1 Million Barrels a Day
U.S. regulators have approved a deepwater port license for Sentinel Midstream’s Texas GulfLink project off the Texas coast, a step that moves another offshore crude-export outlet closer to construction and future operations. Reuters reporting...
Hecla Emissions Management Review: Turning EU ETS and FuelEU into a workflow
Hecla Emissions Management is trying to make EU ETS and FuelEU feel more like a managed workflow and less like a rolling crisis. Backed by Wilhelmsen Ship Management and Affinity Shipping, they combine registry...
Maritime Risk Symposium 2026 Review
Maritime Risk Symposium 2026 is a risk-first, operations-minded meet up for maritime transportation security. It brings together industry, government, and academic leaders to pressure-test real vulnerabilities, compare mitigation approaches, and share practical lessons from...
A Deep Dive into Modern Maritime Piracy: Impact & Solutions
The dangers posed by piracy cannot be understated, demanding global attention and strategic intervention. This article will delve further into the tools and tactics employed by ships to defend against these threats, emphasizing the...
Container Shipping 2026 Downcycle Warning: Newbuild Deliveries, Normalizing Demand, and Rate Pressure
Fresh 2026 market commentary is increasingly framing container shipping as a post-boom downcycle setup: an elevated orderbook and heavy delivery schedule colliding with more modest demand growth and softer benchmark pricing after the 2021...
US–India trade deal links tariff cuts to a Russian crude pullback and reshapes tanker route math
A newly announced trade arrangement between the United States and India cuts U.S. tariffs on Indian goods to 18% from higher levels, alongside commitments described by officials as India scaling back or halting purchases...
Starboard Maritime Intelligence Review: Turning ocean data into early warnings
Starboard Maritime Intelligence is building a kind of “pattern of life radar” for the ocean, fusing AIS, satellite imagery, RF data and contextual databases so governments and critical infrastructure operators can see which vessels...
The Pros and Cons of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) Systems for Ships
Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) on ships is a Tier III NOx compliance approach that tackles emissions inside the engine process, not by adding urea and a catalyst downstream. The practical appeal is simple: meet...
Red Sea Routing Splits Again (Maersk MECL Goes Trans-Suez, Others Stay Cautious)
Maersk published an operational update confirming a structural return to trans-Suez routing for its MECL service, with specific sailings called out including an eastbound departure planned for Feb 3, 2026. The signal is the...
Offshore Technology Conference 2026
Houston is where offshore decision cycles get real. For four days, OTC pulls together operators, EPCs, OEMs, service providers, and the technical community into one floor at NRG Park. If your world touches subsea,...