Thursday, August 20, 2026
Media Kit
pirate group in small boat

Shadowy Tanker Broadcasts “Pirates Aboard Help” Sailing Off Yemen

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Zim

Zim Posts Positive Q2 Results, But Hapag Merger Faces Regulators' Scrutiny

Published Aug 19, 2026 10:41 PM by The Maritime Executive

Israeli container carrier Zim posted solid results for the second quarter this year, turning a small profit on $1.8 billion in income, but its share price fell by four percent in early trading - perhaps because of the announcement that Brazil's competition regulators would thoroughly review its proposed merger with Hapag-Lloyd. The quarterly results are an improvement: revenue was up nine percent year-over-year, driven by strengthening volumes in the Asian and transpacific markets. Average freight rates also strengthened, increasing earnings...

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Counterfeit "Manchester" cigarettes (AFP)

Australia, China Team Up to Arrest Over 60 Tobacco Smugglers

Published Aug 19, 2026 9:17 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Australian Border Force and its Chinese counterparts have busted a major international smuggling ring involved in shuttling illicit tobacco from China to the Australian market. Australia has the highest tobacco taxes in the world, and a thriving black-market industry supplies cut rate cigarettes to smokers by smuggling untaxed cartons past customs, using containerized shipments mislabeled as other goods. Recently, China Customs' Anti-Smuggling Bureau began referring a series of suspected illicit tobacco shipments to the ABF for investigation. The cooperative...

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Nigeria

Nigeria Upbeat Over Maritime Competitiveness After US Lifts 12-Year Ban

Published Aug 19, 2026 7:20 PM by The Maritime Executive

Nigeria will work to attract more shipping lines to its maritime sector and deepen trade with the United States following the lifting of restrictions imposed on vessels originating from the country due to security concerns, specifically weak anti-terrorism measures. After more than a decade of vessels arriving in the U.S. from Nigerian terminals being subjected to stricter security scrutiny, the West African nation is upbeat that the lifting of the Conditions of Entry (COE) will enhance its maritime sector’s competitiveness...

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Indonesia drug arrest

Indonesia Makes 2.6 Ton Drug Bust on Tanzanian Ship with False ID

Published Aug 19, 2026 7:14 PM by The Maritime Executive

Indonesian authorities are reporting one of their largest ever drug busts, completed on Monday night, August 17, on a small general cargo ship coming from Malaysia and suspected of operating under a false ID. They took 10 people, all Myanmar nationals, who were aboard the ship into custody and seized the vessel for further inspection. The authorities reported they were acting on intelligence and formed a joint operation with customs to intercept the vessel while it was in the waters...

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Offshore

The South African lease area covered part of the Orange Basin, a geological region where Shell has had success on the Namibian side of the boundary line, above (Press handout courtesy Odfjell)

Top Court Ends Shell's South African Wild Coast Offshore Lease

Last Friday, oil major Shell lost a long-running court battle over its offshore oil and gas exploration plans for a frontier region off South Africa's "Wild Coast," an unspoiled stretch of coastline that provides habitat for migrating humpback whales. Environmental groups (including Greenpeace) began suing Shell back in 2021 in an attempt to stop seismic surveying off the Wild Coast, asserting that it would be harmful to whales and to commercial fishermen. Shell countered that its plans were compliant with...

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Shipbuilding

NightTrain

Drawing on LASH Heritage, BlackSea Builds Carrier for Floating ISO Boxes

The American autonomous-boat builder Blacksea Technologies has reinvented the Cold War concept of the Lighter Aboard Ship (LASH) vessel, reduced its scale and applied it to contested logistics. Its new autonomous-vessel design, NightTrain, retains the core concept of a self-lightering vessel for shallow-water deliveries, but it is built to carry watertight, floating ISO containers in place of 40-tonne barges. The LASH idea was developed in the 1960s as an alternative to containerized freight and breakbulk. A militarized variant, the Cape...

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Environment

Clear offender: a Chinese distant-water fishing vessel caught with illegal drift net gear at a position off Japan, 2008 (USCG file image)

Study: Wealthy Countries Fuel Illegal Fishing in Poor Countries

Consumers in wealthy nations are fueling a rampant illegal fishing trade that has become a multibillion-dollar industry, and the majority of the catch originates in the waters of poor countries, according to a comprehensive study from Canada’s University of British Columbia. Fishing is a socioeconomic lifeline for most coastal communities across the globe, with about 3.5 million fishing vessels plying the world’s oceans, providing livelihoods and food for millions. But the world seems to have resigned itself to being unable...

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Business

offshore oil and gas services

Malaysia’s ALAM Maritim CEO Briefly Detained in Corruption Investigation

Malaysia’s offshore services firm for the oil and gas industry, ALAM Maritim Resources, confirmed reports that its CEO was briefly remanded earlier this week by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as part of an ongoing investigation. The company said that Datuk Azmi has resumed all executive roles and leadership responsibilities and that the day-to-day business operations, financial position, and strategic government remain stable and unaffected. The company reported in a stock exchange filing on Monday, August 17, that its Group Managing...

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