CHICAGO — July 30, 2026 — The United States cannot rebuild its maritime strength by focusing solely on its ocean coasts. Instead, the nation's industrial resurgence depends on recognizing the Great Lakes as one of America's five maritime coastlines and leveraging the region's unmatched manufacturing ecosystem, according to U.S. Maritime Administrator Stephen M. Carmel.
"So far this year, ship transits via the Panama Canal have increased 8% y/y to a daily average of 38, driven by the tanker sector. Transits have been especially high during the past five weeks, rising 16% y/y, as US energy exports to the Pacific jumped,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analysis Manager at BIMCO.
A Chinese supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi crude sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after being stranded in the Gulf for more than two months due to the U.S.-Iran war, LSEG and Kpler ship-tracking data showed.The VLCC Yuan Hua Hu is now anchored off the Gulf of Oman, near where the U.S. Navy has set up a blockade on Iranian vessels, LSEG data showed.
Pakistan said on Sunday it was preparing to host "meaningful talks" to end the conflict over Iran in coming days even though Tehran earlier accused Washington of preparing a land assault while seeking negotiations.Speaking after talks between regional foreign ministers, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said they had covered possible ways to bring an early and permanent end to the war in the
The barge Defiant was refloated from the Castillo San Felipe del Morro shoreline in San Juan Harbor, Wednesday at approximately 2:22 a.m., just before high tide.Salvage crews and tugboat operators prepositioned three tugboats and completed all the preparations, including the pressurization of all cargo tanks, voids and compartments in the barge.
In December of 2025, the U.S. Coast Guard announced the award of two contracts to build up to six Arctic Security Cutter (ASC) icebreakers. The announcement declaring the vessels would be built between the United States and Finland in a major step forward for America’s national security in the Arctic region. The decision process encompassed more than the security of the Arctic passage.
Often debated and long-awaited, The White House released its long-anticipated America’s Maritime Action Plan (MAP), a 40+ page blueprint aimed at what it calls a new “Maritime Golden Age” for the United States.The document, developed under Executive Order 14269, lays out a four-pillar strategy to rebuild domestic shipbuilding capacity, expand the U.S.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation and Saltchuk Resources, Inc. announced a definitive agreement for Saltchuk to acquire Great Lakes at an aggregate equity value of approximately $1.2 billion and a total transaction value of $1.5 billion.Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies
The U.S. Coast Guard coordinated the rescue of 27 mariners on Saturday after their Venezuelan-flagged fishing vessel caught fire approximately 500 miles north-northwest of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.At 3:51 p.m. PST, Saturday, Rescue Coordination Center Alameda received a notification from the Garmin Search and Rescue Command Center of an SOS distress alert from the 240-foot fishing vessel
The U.S. inland waterways don’t just move cargo — they move people into long-term, well-paid careers. At a time when trucking and rail struggle with shortages, turnover, and burnout, inland waterways operators quietly offer something different: a job you can start without experience, a career you can grow into, and a paycheck that gets better every step of the way.
The American Waterways Operators, the trade association of the American tugboat, towboat and barge industry, has released a new video on the industry's contributions to U.S. national and homeland security.The two-minute video, The Tugboat, Towboat and Barge Industry: Supplying America, Securing America, notes that while the mariners who transport cargo and facilitate commerce on America's rivers
On August 15, the Panama Canal marked 111 years of operations, renewing its commitment to a sustainable future through a water strategy focused on public well-being and an operational vision that enhances the country’s logistical competitiveness.Since the waterway’s inauguration in 1914, with the historic transit of the steamship Ancón, which, for the first time