Shipping Industry News

The latest session of the IMO’s Pollution Prevention and Response Sub-Committee didn’t deliver sweeping new rules, but beneath the technical drafting work, PPR 13 signaled a clear shift toward performance-based environmental oversight. From biofouling and Arctic black carbon to scrubber discharges and low-load engine certification, the focus is moving beyond installed equipment to how ships are actually operated, maintained, and managed over their full lifecycle.

A merchant vessel transiting about 70 nautical miles southwest of Aden, Yemen reported an encounter with armed skiffs on Tuesday, briefly raising alarm before authorities downgraded the situation to “suspicious activity.”

The International Chamber of Shipping is backing efforts to revive U.S. shipbuilding but warning that proposed port fees on foreign-built vessels—projected to raise up to $1.5 trillion—could disrupt global trade and raise transport costs.

Here’s what corn, wheat, and soybean traders need to watch this week, including weather conditions in South America, the U.S., and Europe.

Wheat is down across the three markets, with Chicago leading the charge lower so far on Tuesday morning. The wheat complex closed Friday with losses across all three markets. Chicago SRW futures were 9 to 10 cents lower, as March was still 19 cents higher last week. Open interest was...

Corn price action is down 2 to 3 ½ cents as trade resumes on Tuesday morning. Futures posted fractional gains on Friday, as March managed to close the week with a 1 ½ cent gain. Preliminary open interest was up 5,808 contracts on Friday. The CmdtyView national average Cash Corn...

Soybeans are showing 2 to 4 cent losses across most contracts on Tuesday morning. Futures rounded out the week with contracts down 2 to 4 ½ cents at the close, as March was 17 ¾ cents higher last week. Open interest rose 6,846 contracts on Friday. The cmdtyView national average...

Parts of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil-shipping lanes, will be closed for “several hours” on Tuesday as part of Iran’s military drills, state TV in the Islamic Republic reported.

Russia could deploy its navy to prevent European powers from seizing its vessels and may retaliate against European shipping if Russian ships are taken, Nikolai Patrushev, one of Russia's leading hardliners, was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Ship traffic in the Arctic reached a new milestone in 2025, with 1,812 unique vessels operating inside the Polar Code area, according to new data released by the Arctic Council Working Group on the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME). The figures mark a 40% increase from 2013, when PAME began tracking traffic through its Arctic Ship Traffic Data (ASTD) system.

The White House’s 13 February Maritime Action Plan (MAP) sets out an ambitious strategy: to rebuild US shipbuilding and reduce dependence on foreign-built and foreign-flagged vessels

A consortium led by U.S. oil major Chevron signed exclusive lease agreements on Monday to look for natural gas off southern Greece, expanding the United States' presence in the eastern Mediterranean.