The latest survey shows significant deficiencies in ballast water systems technology. Can land-based facilities help bridge gap between rules and reality?

Full slots in a building boom for shipyards has seen concerns over unfamiliar wind power, added to vessel designs, with yards refusing to build to non-standard plans, rejecting orders. Two owners describe how they have managed to persuade yards otherwise

Advances in battery technology make it possible for short-sea ships and feeder vessels to electrify. That simultaneously offers the possibility to cut costs and emissions and improve vessel efficiency

Savings of more than 50% on fleet-wide emissions can be achieved using cheap modifications on ships. Compared to the cost of building new LNG powered vessels, there is no contest. And the cuts to carbon emissions are twice as high

A series of six LNG-enabled pure car and truck carriers are set to play a crucial role in Sallaum Lines’ efforts to decarbonise its transportation operations

The US Navy is pioneering a new approach to shipbuilding with its Landing Ship Medium (LSM) programme, an approach it hopes will enable it to quickly bring large numbers of newbuilds into service on time and on budget

Outfitted in the Netherlands, with a hull built in China, Somtrans’ new bunker barge, United LNG I, will help the company to extend its LNG bunkering capacity across various Belgian and Dutch seaports

The forthcoming Oceanus17 USV from UK-based ZeroUSV will incorporate most of the components and design features that characterised its earlier, smaller, Oceanus12 model, speeding up the design, engineering and build phases

A structured risk-management framework is helping strengthen the safety of special bulk cargo terminal operations. Combining Formal Safety Assessment with prioritisation, risk mapping and cost-benefit evaluation, the approach highlights critical maintenance and workforce-related risks while informing targeted control strategies that can reduce accidents and improve operational resilience.

Harnessing wind as a supplementary propulsion source, rigid sail technology offers a promising route to lower fuel consumption and emissions in commercial shipping. Advanced virtual wind tunnel and CFD modelling reveal how multi-sail configurations can generate meaningful propulsive forces, supporting the transition towards more energy-efficient and sustainable vessel operations.

Accurately predicting global loads remains a critical challenge for high-speed wave-piercing catamarans operating in realistic sea conditions. Combining full-scale trial data, strain sensing and finite-element modelling improves understanding of complex structural loads, supporting more efficient designs, enhanced reliability and greater confidence in the load assumptions used during vessel development.

Autonomous navigation is advancing through fast, graph-based path planning techniques designed for dynamic marine environments. By combining visibility graphs with the A* algorithm, the approach delivers collision-free route optimisation within seconds, offering a practical foundation for intelligent ship control systems operating amid changing conditions and navigational constraints.