Donald Trump’s tour of Asia provided the biggest shipping news of the week. His meet-up with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, yesterday saw the tit-for-tat port fees shelved for a year, and panamaxes surging as China committed to resume buying large amounts of American grain. Trump’s earlier meetings this week with the leaders of Japan and South Korea had received significant shipbuilding commitments from the two East Asian industrial powerhouses.
Big names from shipping were alongside Narendra Modi for India Maritime Week 2025 where the Indian prime minister made many ambitious shipping announcements, including the establishment of a national container carrier while APM Terminals and DP World came in with a combined $7bn of new port investments into the world’s most populous nation.
VLCCs roared well into six-digit territory this week, lending credence to projections by sister title Splash Extra that suggest 2025 is on track to be the best year for overall tanker earnings for a decade. “We are approaching a ‘pick a number’ territory,” Norwegian broker Fearnleys suggested as rates soared above $125,000 a day.
This week’s big Maritime CEO interview was with Martijn Bergink, the president of Alfa Laval’s marine division, who discussed how shipowners have to balance short-term operational needs with long-term goals.
World shipping paid tribute to Dr Helmut Sohmen, who chaired mighty BW Group for many years through to 2014. Sohmen passed away, aged 85, in Hong Kong. Few in global shipping matched Sohmen’s mix of intellect, caution, and commercial courage. As markets hum and new bubbles form, his advice to hoard cash and expect the unexpected feels freshly urgent, wrote Andrew Craig-Bennett, our lead columnist, in this week’s standout Contribution.
Tuesday saw 150 senior executives descend on the Monaco Yacht Club for a high-level debate at the exclusive, by-invite-only Maritime CEO Forum. Hear what the themes discussed and key takeaways were in the latest edition of the Splash Wrap podcast carried below.
