Monday, December 29, 2025
Media Kit
Cruise ship

Australian Cruise Ship Grounds off Papua New Guinea

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Anduril's Ghost Shark extra-large UUV on the pier in Sydney, Australia. The firm is already blacklisted by China (Anduril file image)

China Announces Sanctions and Naval Drills Around Taiwan

Published Dec 28, 2025 9:13 PM by The Maritime Executive

In response to a new multi-billion dollar U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, China's government has announced sanctions on a swath of the American naval-technology industrial base, including Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Maritime Services, Advanced Acoustic Concepts, and several divisions of the defense drone conglomerate Anduril Industries. In a follow-on announcement Sunday, China's Eastern Theater Command announced that it would hold mass military drills around the island to send a message, including simulated "sea-air combat readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority,...

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Ursa Major on her final voyage (Oliver Alexander / X)

Report: Lost Russian Ship Was Carrying Nuclear Submarine Reactor Parts

Published Dec 28, 2025 8:27 PM by The Maritime Executive

The special cargo aboard the Russian arms ship that went down off Cartagena last year was not what its crew initially reported, according to Spanish outlet La Verdad. The blue-tarped objects on the vessel's stern were likely naval reactor components, unfueled and potentially headed for North Korea, national authorities determined. In December 2024, Ursa Major was under way in an eastbound convoy through the Strait of Gibraltar, a trip she had made many times before. The vessel was well-known to...

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A rendering of Empire Wind 1, a planned wind farm currently under a halt work order from the Trump Administration (file image courtesy Equinor)

Could Northeast States Trade Pipeline Access for Offshore Wind Permits?

Published Dec 28, 2025 4:31 PM by William P. Doyle

In mid-December 2025, the Trump Administration halted offshore wind projects from New England to Virginia, placing development on an indefinite pause. Just weeks earlier, I spoke at a conference in New England and had numerous side conversations with officials and stakeholders from across New England and New York about the outlook for maritime and energy policy. The timing was telling. The Northeast is arguably the center of the universe for offshore wind, and the perspectives expressed in those discussions ran...

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The Doraleh port expansion at Djibouti (DPFZA file image)

Port Wars in the Horn of Africa

Published Dec 28, 2025 3:11 PM by The Maritime Executive

Egyptian government sources have briefed the UAE’s National newspaper that Egypt is to help develop the ports of Assab in Eritrea and Doraleh in Djibouti, in part to better host the Egyptian naval vessels which already visit these ports, and apparently as part of its long-running campaign to put pressure on Ethiopia. Egypt has for some time being trying to force Ethiopia to negotiate over Nile water flows governed by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The dam was finally...

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Offshore

A rendering of Empire Wind 1, a planned wind farm currently under a halt work order from the Trump Administration (file image courtesy Equinor)

Could Northeast States Trade Pipeline Access for Offshore Wind Permits?

In mid-December 2025, the Trump Administration halted offshore wind projects from New England to Virginia, placing development on an indefinite pause. Just weeks earlier, I spoke at a conference in New England and had numerous side conversations with officials and stakeholders from across New England and New York about the outlook for maritime and energy policy. The timing was telling. The Northeast is arguably the center of the universe for offshore wind, and the perspectives expressed in those discussions ran...

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Shipbuilding

Russian-built LNG carrier

Russia Delivers First Domestically-Built Arc7 LNG Carrier

Russia’s Sovcomflot and Zvezda shipyard heralded the delivery of its first LNG carrier, the Alexey Kosygin. They are saying it is the first of a new series of domestically-built LNG carriers that will be able to operate year-round on the Northern Sea Route and help to meet the goal of tripling LNG exports. The vessel with a capacity of 172,600 cbm was officially commissioned and handed over to Sovcomflot on December 24. It is years behind schedule due to sanctions...

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Environment

large gas carrier designed for ammonia shipping

JERA Advances Plans to Ship Ammonia Produced in Louisiana to Japan

Japan’s largest power generation and energy company, JERA, is advancing its plans to ship low-carbon ammonia from a production facility in Louisiana to Japan to fuel a power generation plant. The project, working with shipping companies NYK and Mitsui O.S.K., is expected to become the first commercial-scale effort to import ammonia fuel to Japan. The companies announced that they have signed contracts which will lead to the development of very large gas carriers designed specifically for ammonia transport. Mitsui O.S....

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Business

Happy holidays

Happy Holidays From the Team at The Maritime Executive

Season's greetings from The Maritime Executive! Thank you for visiting our website, subscribing to our newsletter and reading our magazine. Thanks to you, the reader, it was a banner year for TME - and we're pleased to celebrate it with you. Whether you're a shipowner, shipbuilder, merchant mariner, a supplier or in vessel operations, The Maritime Executive promises to meet your industry news and information needs in 2026. Happy Holidays and a happy New Year!

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