Order Book News

A flourishing cruise market and European shipbuilders’ unerring contractual success in the sector has taken orderbooks into the middle of the next decade, ensuring production continuity and underpinning fresh capital expenditure and R&D commitments by the continent’s foremost players.Just how important the segment is to the industry and supply chain may be gauged from the fact that at least three-quarters of the value of European yards’ commercial orderbooks is attributable to…

In the world of large cruise ship construction, few yards operate at the level of Meyer Turku, which recently unveiled its 2025 results which serve as a turning point, not just in financial recovery, but in long-term strategic positioning.The numbers, at first glance, tell a familiar post-pandemic story. Turnover climbed to €2.14 billion, up more than 17% year-on-year, while adjusted EBIT reached €105.1 million, marking a continued recovery from losses just two years prior. But beneath the financials lies a more consequential shift: a yard restructuring itself for independence…

Many claim to have ‘saltwater in their veins,’ but all you have to do is walk into the corner office of John McDonald, the new Chairman and CEO of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), to see that him saying “I was born into maritime” is not hyperbole. The first thing that greets you is a Dusan Kadlec nighttime painting of the Brooklyn Bridge, a painting that has special meaning to him as he fondly remembers being on a boat in New York harbor in 1983, his father USCG Captain of the Port of New York at that time, watching the fireworks over the bridge for the celebration.

"By the end of the first quarter of 2026, the global shipping order book hit a 17-year high, reaching 191m Compensated Gross Tonnes (CGT). This is equivalent to 17% of the global fleet, the highest ratio since 2011. The order book has been boosted by higher newbuilding contracting throughout the 2020s and most recently by the highest quarterly crude tanker contracting in history,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analysis Manager at BIMCO.During the first quarter of 2026, newbuilding contracting has risen 40% y/y to 17.6m Compensated Gross Tonnes (CGT)…

Subsea Cable Assets (SCA) has secured its first framework contract with 50Hertz to deliver cable storage and handling systems for power grid projects in Germany.The contract, awarded through a European tender process, covers the engineering, manufacturing, delivery, installation and commissioning of four cable carousel systems, including associated loading equipment.SCA said the systems are designed to support both offshore and onshore grid infrastructure, ensuring reliable transmission…

At the annual meeting of the ABS Southeast Asia Regional Committee, ABS Chairman and CEO John McDonald offered a message to maritime and offshore industry leaders from Singapore and across Southeast Asia.“Rapid technology innovation and autonomous systems are transforming shipping into a highly connected, data-driven industry. ABS is responding by investing in our technology capabilities and expanding the value we can bring across the entire maritime ecosystem," he said.“The shipping industry faces significant pressures from global economics…

The outlook for the offshore support vessel (OSV) business has brightened considerably since the dark days of the previous decade and is possibly in a “Goldilocks moment” — not too weak and not too strong. While strengthening, it has not yet reached the point of significant new vessel ordering. Paradoxically, across maritime markets, observers are often concerned when exuberance gets out of hand. For now, newbuild activity remains limited.On the Q3 2025 earnings call for listed company Tidewater (NYSE: TDW)…

Despite increasing trade policy uncertainty and falling freight rates, the container ship order book has continued to expand. It now totals more than 1,350 ships with a combined capacity of 11.8m TEU, says Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.In 2025, global average container freight rates fell an estimated 13% year-on-year while US import tariff increases raised concerns about increasing trade protectionism. Despite this, global container volumes grew 4.7% year-on-year…

"Despite increasing trade policy uncertainty and falling freight rates, the container ship order book has continued to expand. It now totals more than 1,350 ships with a combined capacity of 11.8m TEU,” says Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.In 2025, global average container freight rates fell an estimated 13% year-on-year while US import tariff increases raised concerns about increasing trade protectionism. Despite this, global container volumes grew 4.7% year-on-year…

2025 was a year of recalibration, continuing the softness experienced since the fourth quarter of 2024. Rather than a slowdown, this period can be better described as a collective deep breath as the industry prepares for the next upcycle in the Asian Pacific region.Compared to 2024, the composite dayrates, calculated as a weighted average across size categories, declined by approximately 16% for PSVs and 14% for AHTS vessels. In tandem, utilization also softened, with the number of working vessels down 19% and 8% respectively…

DRIFT Energy, a leader in ocean-based renewable energy, has signed a collaboration agreement with Enapter to adapt the design of their Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) electrolyzer technology for deployment at sea. The agreement was formalized during a visit by DRIFT’s CEO, Ben Medland, to Enapter’s production facility in Pisa, Italy, this week.The partnership will accelerate development of the energy storage element of DRIFT’s technology ecosystem, paving the way for the production of over 30 energy ships currently on the company’s order book.

According to the latest figures from DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight (AFI) platform, 17 new orders for alternative-fuelled vessels were placed in February 2026.This was almost entirely accounted for by LNG-fuelled vessels (14), with all of these orders placed by the container segment. The remaining three orders were for dual-fuelled ethane gas carriers.A total of 37 alternative-fuelled vessels have been ordered in the first two months of the year, compared to 54 in the first two months of 2025.A further two orders were also placed for LNG bunkering vessels in February…

Low ship recycling activity could undermine tanker market strength in the coming years, BIMCO said in its February 2026 Tanker Shipping Market Overview & Outlook, even as crude tanker earnings are expected to remain firm in the near term.“We expect continued strong market conditions for crude tankers in 2026 and 2027 despite some weakening in 2027. On the other hand, we forecast that the product tanker market will weaken during both years as fleet and supply growth accelerates…

Swiss marine power company WinGD has completed both Type Approval Testing (TAT) and Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) of its ammonia-fueled two-stroke marine engine, marking a milestone in efforts to decarbonize shipping.The test programs were completed in January 2026 on the X52DF-A-1.0 engine at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Engine & Machinery (HHI-EMD) facility in South Korea. The tests were witnessed by classification society Lloyd’s Register together with representatives from major classification societies…

The shipping industry's biggest players are shrugging off Trump administration opposition to a global carbon price and are forging ahead with billions of dollars in emissions-reducing investments, according to company officials and a Reuters analysis of data.Europe, Brazil and a host of other nations are pushing the sector, which is responsible for nearly 3% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, to go green. But, in October, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the world's two largest oil producers…

The shipping industry's biggest players are shrugging off Trump administration opposition to a global carbon price and are forging ahead with billions of dollars in emissions-reducing investments, according to company officials and a Reuters analysis of data.Europe, Brazil and a host of other nations are pushing the sector, which is responsible for nearly 3% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, to go green. But, in October, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the world's two largest oil producers…

McQuilling Services has released its 29th anniversary edition, 2026-2030 Tanker Market Outlook with the theme: “You Can’t See the Forest for the Trees.”The report frames the outlook for crude tankers over the next five years. Structural forces (the “forest”) including: 1) macroeconomic conditions, 2) a weakening US dollar, 3) a commodity price super cycle, 4) emerging market oil demand, and 5) global shipyard capacity constraints are expected to dominate market direction. Geopolitical…

The World Shipping Council (WSC) has published its latest update to the WSC Dual-Fuel Fleet Dashboard, tracking the global liner shipping industry’s investment in new ships capable of running on renewable and lower-emission fuels.As of December 2025, the number of dual-fuel container ships and vehicle carriers on the water has reached 400, up from 218 in 2024.The number of dual-fuel ships on order has also continued to grow, reaching 726 vessels, despite a flurry of deliveries shifting from the orderbook onto the water.

LNG-fueled container ships helped sustain the share of alternative fuels in the global shipbuilding orderbook in 2025, even as overall newbuilding activity slowed sharply following a record year, according to data from classification society DNV.Annual figures from DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight platform show that while total newbuild orders fell to 2,403 vessels in 2025 from 4,405 a year earlier, alternative-fueled ships retained a 38% share of total gross tonnage, supported…

The quest to rebuild the U.S. iceabreaking fleet continues to move at lightening speed, with Seaspan Shipyards (Seaspan) signing agreements with Bollinger Shipyards (Bollinger) and Rauma Marine Constructions Oy (Rauma) to provide its Multi-Purpose Icebreaker (MPI) design and associated supply chain packages to enable rapid construction and delivery of up to six vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard’s Arctic Security Cutter (ASC) program.Rauma will build up to two vessels in Finland with delivery expected in 2028 under the contracts formally announced by the U.S. Coast Guard last week.

Lloyd’s Register (LR) has published the latest report in its Fuel for thought series, providing an assessment of hydrogen’s potential role in maritime decarbonization. Fuel for thought: Hydrogen examines hydrogen from production and supply through to onboard use, highlighting the fuel’s advantages alongside the safety, infrastructure and cost challenges that currently restrict its adoption. Green hydrogen has the potential to deliver zero tank-to-wake greenhouse gas emissions when used in fuel cells and has a vital role as the building block for e-fuels such as ammonia and methanol.

Danish shipping company NORDEN has sold one MR tanker and one Capesize dry bulk vessel from its owned fleet, capitalizing on strong asset prices across the dry cargo and tanker markets.The company also said it had entered into two new multi-purpose (MPP) newbuilding lease agreements with purchase options, as part of its strategy to expand in the project cargo market. The vessels are scheduled for delivery in 2028.NORDEN said the MPP segment benefits from a favorable supply outlook…

Ocean Network Express (ONE) reported a net loss of $88 million for the third quarter of FY2025, as persistent fleet growth and slower cargo movement weighed on short-term freight rates, particularly in the Asia–North America tradeThe result marked a sharp year-on-year deterioration from the same period in FY2024, reflecting a softer supply-demand balance driven by continued newbuilding deliveries across the global container fleet.For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, ONE generated revenue of $4.07 billion…