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A Saudi-flagged supertanker has been struck off the kingdom's main Red Sea oil terminal, in an attack that extends the Houthi blockade to Saudi Arabia's last major export outlet and tightens the squeeze on crude flows to Europe and Asia already disrupted at both Gulf chokepoints. The Bahri-owned VLCC Amzan, a 320,926-deadweight-tonne carrier built in 2014, reported a ballistic-missile strike on 24 August while about 63 nautical miles west of Yanbu, causing a fire on the main

Germany's largest inland shipping operator has called for a €12.5 billion European programme to build 1,000 shallow-draught vessels by 2035, arguing that only a generational fleet renewal can keep the continent's industrial supply chains moving as droughts render the Rhine unnavigable with ever greater frequency. Cologne-based HGK issued the appeal on 14 August, at the peak of a drought that had pushed the benchmark Kaub gauge on the Middle Rhine to just 16 centimetres on 11

Ukraine has stopped its drone campaign against oil tankers in the Black Sea after direct intervention from Washington, in a de-escalation that promises to relieve the freight and insurance squeeze that had driven tanker rates on the crucial Kazakh export route to Gulf-crisis levels. The Financial Times reported on 12 August that Ukraine halted the strikes following a request from US Vice-President J.D. Vance, who telephoned President Volodymyr Zelensky on 31 July as a series

The Black Sea has become the latest strategic chokepoint straining global energy flows, as an intensifying campaign of drone strikes on tankers loading Russian and Kazakh crude drives freight rates to Middle East levels and pushes war-risk premiums sharply higher. Repeated attacks on vessels at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal near Novorossiysk have more than doubled tanker rates since June to around $400,000 a day, according to Seatrade Maritime. The Baltic Exchange'

Sweden's Supreme Court has cleared the way for a seized cargo vessel to be transferred to Ukraine, in what officials are calling the first time a foreign court has ordered the handover of a ship linked to Russia's shadow fleet, establishing a precedent for holding accountable those accused of moving stolen goods from occupied territory. The court dismissed an appeal by the owners of the Caffa on 4 August, leaving intact earlier rulings by the Ystad District Court and the Cour

Russia is quietly assembling a shadow fleet of liquefied natural gas carriers, extending to gas the same sanctions-evasion playbook it built for crude oil, in a move designed to keep Moscow's energy revenues flowing once the European Union's import ban takes effect. The Financial Times reported on Monday, citing data from maritime analytics firm Windward, that Russia's specialised covert gas fleet has grown to 25 vessels over the past six months. The expansion includes at lea

Saudi Arabia has moved to assemble a multinational maritime defence coalition to protect Red Sea shipping, a rapid political-military escalation of the chokepoint crisis that has severed normal tanker traffic through the region and pulled European naval assets deeper into the conflict. Military representatives from 43 of 51 invited nations, alongside a European Union delegation, gathered in Riyadh on Thursday to discuss the initiative, with the kingdom naming itself founding

The two maritime arteries carrying most of the Gulf's oil to Europe and Asia are now effectively closed simultaneously, a dual blockade that has severed normal commercial tanker traffic at both ends of the region and pushed the operational risk picture to its most severe of the conflict. Maritime intelligence firm Windward assessed on Thursday that both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb strait are effectively shut to normal commercial tanker movements, for different

Shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb strait has collapsed to its lowest level in months after Houthi attacks on Saudi oil installations, deepening a two-front squeeze on the maritime arteries that feed crude to Europe and Asia and keeping freight and insurance costs elevated for owners. Only 15 commodity vessels transited the waterway on Sunday, down 56 per cent from the 34 that crossed on 20 July, the day the Iran-aligned group first declared a maritime embargo on Saudi-linked

The European Commission has proposed drawing vessels between 400 and 5,000 gross tonnage into the EU Emissions Trading System, a targeted expansion that shipowners have broadly welcomed while pressing Brussels for firmer commitments on where the money goes. The draft forms part of a wider climate policy overhaul and would close several avenues for cost avoidance. Offshore worksites in EU waters would be treated as ports of call, preventing offshore vessels from sidestepping E

A reported approach by MSC founder Gianluigi Aponte to the anchor shareholders of Hapag-Lloyd has revived questions over the durability of European container shipping's ownership structures, even as both companies publicly dismissed the talk. Aponte, the 85-year-old patron of the Geneva-based group that ranks as the world's largest container carrier, has reportedly been sounding out the main owners of the Hamburg-based line for some time, according to a Manager Magazin report

Europe's container shipping order is once again under strain. Gianluigi Aponte, the 85-year-old founder of Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company, has been sounding out Hapag-Lloyd's anchor shareholders about a stake in the German carrier, according to Manager Magazin, a move that would reshape the competitive map of the world's busiest east-west trade lanes. Both companies have publicly denied the report, with MSC calling it untrue and Hamburg-based Hapag-Lloyd dismissi