Some shipping companies are discreetly moving operations out of Hong Kong and taking vessels off its flag registry. Others are making contingency plans to do so.Behind these low-profile moves, six shipping executives said, lie concerns that their ships could be commandeered by Chinese authorities or hit with U.S. sanctions in a conflict between Beijing and Washington.
Two of the world's top shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, said on Thursday they did not see an immediate return to Red Sea after the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was announced.Both companies said they would be closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East and would return to the Red Sea once it was safe to do so."The agreement has only just been reached.
As geopolitical tensions rise globally, and President Trump prepares to reenter the White House later this month, focus turns to the maritime sector and China's growing dominance. So when the U.S. Department of Defense released on the Federal Register on January 7, 2025 a "Notice of Chinese military companies operating in the United States
Yemen's Houthis said on Sunday they would maintain their maritime blockade against Israeli vessels in response to "intelligence information" regarding Israeli shipping companies selling their assets to other companies.The Iran-aligned Houthis have said they are intensifying their attacks to support Hamas and Hezbollah in their resistance against Israeli actions in the region.
A U.S. judge approved on Friday a $102 million settlement by the companies that owned and operated the ship that struck Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, killing six people.The payment, approved by U.S. District Judge James Bredar, resolves the U.S. government's claims after the Justice Department filed a civil claim in September seeking $103 million from two Singaporean companies
On a warm spring night in Athens, shortly before midnight, a senior executive at a Greek shipping company noticed an unusual email had landed in his personal inbox.The message, which was also sent to the manager's business email address, warned that one of the company's vessels travelling through the Red Sea was at risk of being attacked by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi militia.
At least two people died and four were declared missing following the sinking of an oil barge operated by a contractor of Venezuelan state-run energy company PDVSA at Lake Maracaibo, PDVSA said on Thursday.Sources and an internal report from the company had indicated four fatalities from the accident earlier on Thursday. But PDVSA said rescue work to find the four missing people has not finished.
U.S. Gulf of Mexico energy firms on Friday were lumbering back from hurricane disruptions as offshore oil and gas producers ramped up operations after halving the key energy region's output, ports reopened, and onshore terminals accepted oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers.Hurricane Francine shut in up to 42% of the region's offshore oil and 53% of its natural gas production.
French shipping and logistics company CMA CGM said on Thursday that its ship "Benjamin Franklin" had lost 44 containers in difficult weather conditions off the coast of South Africa on Tuesday."No injury to the crew has been reported, no pollution, no strong damage to the vessel which remains fully seaworthy," the company said, adding that 33 additional containers had been damaged.
Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese shipping company to establish a year-round container line between the two countries via the Arctic's Northern Sea Route (NSR), it said on Thursday.Russian President Vladimir Putin has talked up prospects for the Arctic corridor as Russia shifts its trade eastwards in response to Western sanctions over
U.S. regulators are investigating potential unfair trade practices within pending Canadian regulations governing ballast water management systems of ships in the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes trade.The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) on Tuesday said it launched the probe to determine if the pending regulations have a disparate effect on U.S.
As a speed boat carrying more than a dozen Somali pirates bore down on their position in the western Indian Ocean, the crew of a Bangladeshi-owned bulk carrier sent out a distress signal and called an emergency hotline.No one reached them in time. The pirates clambered aboard the Abdullah, firing warning shots and taking the captain and second officer hostage