Salvage Plan Being Developed for ONE Containership After Multi-Day Fire

German Researchers Build a Grapple Mini-Sub to Remove Trash

Published Nov 24, 2025 11:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

    Ocean litter tech projects generally focus on visible, floating trash that drifts on the surface and washes up on shore. But a team with Technical University Munich (TUM) has taken a different tack and devised an unmanned grapple robot to pick up trash from the bottom, where pollution may be out of sight but not out of the ecosystem.  In harbors and along busy waterfronts, the seabed typically contains an abundance of sunken trash. In one study in the...

Flag Registry Strains the Cook Islands' Relations With New Zealand

Published Nov 24, 2025 10:13 PM by The Maritime Executive

  The government of New Zealand is displeased with a semi-independent territory, the Cook Islands, which has outsourced its maritime registry to a private firm and ruffled diplomatic feathers. Maritime Cook Islands, a for-profit flag based in Rarotonga, attracted attention for the shadow fleet tankers accumulating on its registry last year - and Auckland has yet to forgive it. Thanks to this dispute, plus the Cook Islands' increasingly close relationship with China, New Zealand has paused foreign aid and de...

The flat Starlink panel on the stern of a Ukrainian drone boat provides the connection for remote-control (Russian MOD file image)

Study: Starlink Could Be Jammed Using Hundreds of Drone Aircraft

Published Nov 24, 2025 9:11 PM by The Maritime Executive

  One of Ukraine's key advantages in the defense against Russia is the "unjammable" over-the-horizon communication service provided by Starlink, the low earth orbit satcom service provided by Elon Musk's SpaceX. Among other applications, the service has powered Ukraine's long-range drone boats, enabling Ukrainian special forces to dominate the battle for the Black Sea. All major naval powers are developing similar concepts for unmanned, autonomous, remote-controlled and networked drone vessels, and that means a long-term demand for resilient satcom -...

HD Hyundai Confirms HMM Order, Pushes to Highest Boxship Orders in 18 Years

Published Nov 24, 2025 8:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

HD Korea Shipbuilding, the holding company for the Hyundai shipbuilding yards, reports it has now booked the highest number of containership orders in 18 years. It said the recently announced order from HMM has driven the company to a new peak last seen in the supercycle in 2007. HMM had announced in October that it was ordering large containerships and tankers as part of its modernization and expansion efforts. The shipping company said the deals, valued...

Shipping

Todays test

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Tugs & Salvage

Boluda Adds Australia and Papua New Guinea Towage as Acquisitions Continue

  The Spanish-based Boluda Towage continues its aggressive path of acquisitions to consolidate the towages and global expansion with the acquisition of operations in Australia and Papua New Guinea from Royal Boskalis. The company highlights that the latest deal expands its presence to five continents and consolidates its operations in Asia. The group reports it has acquired the $600 million towage operation based in Australia and Papua New Guinea from Royal Boskalis. It adds 39 modern and versatile tugs to...

Government

Senate Confirms Hung Cao as Undersecretary of the Navy

  adding a bit of text to test The U.S. Senate has confirmed Capt. Hung Cao (USN, ret'd) as the next Undersecretary of the Navy.  Cao, the son of a high-ranking South Vietnamese official, came to the U.S. as a refugee after the end of the Vietnam War. He attended Annapolis and commissioned as a special operations officer in 1996, working his way up through the ranks in deployments overseas during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  After retiring at...

Corporate News

Autonomous Vessel Navigation System Verified by ABS

[By: ABS] ABS awarded a statement of compliance certificate to AVIKUS Co., Ltd., for the fuel-saving verification framework that AVIKUS has developed for HiNAS Control, an autonomous navigation system. ABS joined AVIKUS, shipping company HMM Co., Ltd., and the Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry in a project to assess the fuel-saving potential of the navigation system by analyzing ship performance data from vessels with HiNAS Control installed. A verification framework was developed by AVIKUS to predict potential fuel savings...

Cruise Ships

TUI Revised UK Strategy Transferring Newbuild Orders Away from Marella

TUI Group, which markets Mein Schiff in Germany and Marella Cruises in the UK, is revising its strategy for the UK. The group is transferring the first-ever newbuild order planned for Marella to TU Cruises, its joint venture with Royal Caribbean Group. The move is part of a “strategic realignment of its cruise operations,” the parent company TUI AG said in a financial community press release. It said the goal is to strengthen TUI Cruises' long-term growth platform...

Ports

Port of Long Beach Icon Mario Cordero is Set to Retire

  Port of Long Beach's longtime CEO, Mario Cordero, plans to retire at the end of 2025, his office announced Thursday.  Cordero has been at the helm at Long Beach for more than eight years, including some of the most challenging and rewarding periods in its history. During the COVID-19 era, container volumes collapsed, then rebounded to record levels - putting strain on America's gateway ports to adjust to changing demand. "His calm and reassuring manner was a great source...

Shipping

Todays test

blah blah some more blah blah

Tugs & Salvage

Boluda Adds Australia and Papua New Guinea Towage as Acquisitions Continue

Government

Senate Confirms Hung Cao as Undersecretary of the Navy

Corporate News

Autonomous Vessel Navigation System Verified by ABS

Cruise Ships

TUI Revised UK Strategy Transferring Newbuild Orders Away from Marella

Ports

Port of Long Beach Icon Mario Cordero is Set to Retire

Offshore

The site for Arctic LNG 2 in the Gulf of Ob, early in construction (Novatek)

Despite Sanctions, Russia's Arctic LNG 2 Plant is Up and Running

Adding  Removing text to validate cloudflare update With extensive help from Chinese interests, Russian gas producer Novatek is making headway in its efforts to circumvent Western sanctions on its Arctic LNG 2 plant in the Siberian Arctic.  The remote Arctic LNG 2 facility was designed to be assembled at a large shipyard in three sections, each built on floating concrete pontoons. One by one, the pontoons would be towed into place at a terminal on the Gulf of Ob, then permanently...

Shipbuilding

U.S. Navy Scales Up Additive Manufacturing for Critical Sub Parts

  Welding equipment manufacturer Lincoln Electric has been a big player in U.S. Navy shipbuilding since at least the Second World War, when a massive construction effort drove demand for its arc welding technology. Today, it has also become a leading player in 3D metal printing, not by selling equipment, but by manufacturing printed parts from start to finish - and once again the Navy is tapping Lincoln's technology to accelerate shipbuilding needs. Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is usually picked...

Environment

WISTA International President Elpi Petraki

Op-Ed: A Shared Obligation to Protect Our Oceans

  This year’s World Maritime Day theme – Our Ocean, Our Obligation, Our Opportunity – reminds us of our responsibility to safeguard the ocean and highlights the importance of inclusion in supporting a sustainable maritime future, says WISTA International. Our Oceans Generating half of the planet’s oxygen, absorbing around 30% of carbon dioxide emissions, holding nearly 97% of Earth’s water and home to some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, the oceans are critical to our survival. Some...

Business

USTR Fees Could Cost Top 10 Carriers $3.2B in 2026, says Alphaliner

There continues to be a lot of speculation in the industry over the full extent of the looming U.S. port fees for Chinese-owned, operated, or built vessels calling at U.S. ports. Industry analyst Alphaliner presented a potentially worst-case scenario based on current deployments that shows the 10 largest container carriers could be confronted with approximately $3.2 billion in fees in 2026 to the U.S., if the USTR program proceeds as planned. The U.S. Trade Representative published its fee...

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Salvage Plan Being Developed for ONE Containership After Multi-Day Fire

German Researchers Build a Grapple Mini-Sub to Remove Trash

Flag Registry Strains the Cook Islands' Relations With New Zealand

Study: Starlink Could Be Jammed Using Hundreds of Drone Aircraft

HD Hyundai Confirms HMM Order, Pushes to Highest Boxship Orders in 18 Years

Todays test

Boluda Adds Australia and Papua New Guinea Towage as Acquisitions Continue

Senate Confirms Hung Cao as Undersecretary of the Navy

Autonomous Vessel Navigation System Verified by ABS

TUI Revised UK Strategy Transferring Newbuild Orders Away from Marella

Port of Long Beach Icon Mario Cordero is Set to Retire

Why Financial Wellbeing Is Central to Seafarer Welfare

Estonia's Digital-First Ship Registry: A Modern Maritime Flag

Smart Analytics for Proactive Threat Detection in Ports and Harbors

Todays test

Boluda Adds Australia and Papua New Guinea Towage as Acquisitions Continue

Senate Confirms Hung Cao as Undersecretary of the Navy

Autonomous Vessel Navigation System Verified by ABS

TUI Revised UK Strategy Transferring Newbuild Orders Away from Marella

Port of Long Beach Icon Mario Cordero is Set to Retire

Despite Sanctions, Russia's Arctic LNG 2 Plant is Up and Running

U.S. Navy Scales Up Additive Manufacturing for Critical Sub Parts

Op-Ed: A Shared Obligation to Protect Our Oceans

USTR Fees Could Cost Top 10 Carriers $3.2B in 2026, says Alphaliner

Maritime Industry Conferences and Events

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