Ships

Global container throughput growth have been revised upwards and is expected to grow by 2.6% in 2025, in line with the IMF’s revised global GDP growth outlook released last week due to cargo front loading during the first half of this year, lower effective US tariff rates, improved financial market and government fiscal stimulus by several key countries. Despite the revision, the US tariffs have already spurred higher inflation and slower job growth which will lead to slower growth in the 2nd h

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on 30 July 2025 the addition of 22 containerships to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list for their alleged links to Iranian interests. A total of 143 ships including 71 crude oil tankers, 42 product tankers and 5 LPG tankers were included in the list that are alleged to be part of the shipping assets controlled by Hossein Shamkhani that have been used to transport oil and petroleum products from Iran

271 new containerships for 2.6m TEU were ordered in the first 7 months of this year, not including undeclared options that would raise the final tally to over 300 ships as carriers’ appetite for new tonnage remains unabated. The wave of new orders is not about to end soon, with attention shifting to feeder sizes. The orderbook for ships of below 4,000 teu currently stands at just 6.8% of the current fleet, compared to 16.2% for ships of 4,000 to 10,000 teu, and 51.7% for ships of over 10,000 teu

The 8,204 teu MSC BILBAO and MSC VALENCIA that have been detained at Malta since 2022 are due to be released after both ships were transferred out of Russian ownership. The 2 ships are owned by interests linked to the GTLK-Joint Stock Company State Transportation Leasing Company that have been placed under the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Russia-related sanctions since 2022. Both ships were transferred to new owner TSC on 7 July 2025 and have been renamed TSC DORADO and

The 2,407 teu HORIZON ENTERPRISE has been scrapped in Alang under the scrap name ENTERPRISE on 10 July 2025, marking the first US built containership to be scrapped outside of the US since 2016. The HORIZON ENTERPRISE was delivered as the AUSTRAL PURITAN in July 1980 as the second unit of 2 ships of the C8-S-85d class built at Bethlehem's Sparrows Point shipyard for Farrell Lines. The first ship of the series, the AUSTRAL PIONEER was scrapped earlier as the HORIZON PACIFIC in Brownsville, Texas

The USTR announced on 17 April the revised Section 301 actions on China’s dominance In the shipbuilding sector, backing down from all of its initial proposals. Although port fees on Chinese operated and Chinese-built ships are retained, carriers will be able to circumvent the fees by swapping out all of the affected ships in the next 180 days as the fee will no longer apply on the operators’ fleet composition or prospective orders but only on ships calling at US ports on a per voyage basis (cha

US efforts to revive its shipbuilding industry will achieve little traction despite the USTR’s proposal to impose a levy on Chinese built ships as well as remissions for operators using US built ships. There are currently only 63 US-flagged containerships, accounting for just 0.9% of the global fleet of 6,874 ships currently. Only 25 of the US flagged ships were built in the US primarily to serve the Jones Act trades, while the rest of the 38 ships were built outside of the US. Maersk, CMA CGM

The USTR has proposed punitive levies for ships calling at US ports on Chinese shipping companies as well as other companies operating Chinese built ships of up to $1.5m per vessel call at US ports, with an additional charge of up to $1m per call for companies with ships on order at Chinese shipyards. The proposed trade action would hit COSCO especially hard, while Taiwanese and Korean carriers would benefit from the move as only a small proportion of their fleet are Chinese built, allowing for

The crew of the 1,930 teu ASL BAUHINIA has abandoned the containership in the Red Sea on 28 January 2025 after it caught fire following an explosion on board the vessel. The 2022 built ship is owned by Asean Seas Line and time chartered by Emirates Shipping Lines since October 2024. It is currently deployed on the Gulf Red Sea Connector (EGRC) service that connects Jebel Ali, Jeddah, Aqaba, Sokhna, Jebel Ali and had left Jebel Ali on 22 January and was scheduled to arrive at Jeddah on 29 Januar

The US Trade Representative (USTR) concluded its investigation of China’s shipbuilding industry on 16 January 2025 and warned of further action to address what it deemed as unfair dominance of the sector. Based on Linerlytica’s analysis of all containerships currently trading in the US, Chinese built ships account for 225 units out of the 1,045 ships currently deployed in the US (excluding Jones Act trades) compared to just 10 ships that were built in the US. In TEU capacity terms, Chinese ship