Shipbuilders News

The U.S. Maritime Industry is sifting through a nearly two-year decision process after Executive Order 14269 announcements of “Maritime Dominance” of April 9th 2025. Initially reported as the strongest federal support in decades, longer periods of delays have also occurred as congress debates the Ships for America Act which has been passed from committee to committee in Congress. Legislation proposed to support American shipbuilding and the US flag commercial fleet and to date…

Scripps Institution of Oceanography is building its next coastal research vessel in Chile. If that award stands as the model for how publicly funded institutions replace their fleets, the small American shipyards that build this country’s research vessels lose a market they cannot survive without.MarineLink.com reported the award in August: a 124-foot vessel for Scripps, part of the University of California San Diego, going to ASENAV in Valdivia, Chile. Qualified U.S. yards competed for it and came in under the project’s publicly stated budget. The work is leaving the country anyway.

SCHOTTEL has been selected to provide the propulsion package for the new Mersey Ferries passenger ferry Royal Daffodil. Designed and constructed by Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Limited in Birkenhead, United Kingdom, the vessel was officially launched in September 2026 and replaces the Royal Iris after 67 years of operation on the Mersey River in the Liverpool City Region.Operating on a tidal river with frequent berthing maneuvers and dense surrounding traffic places high demands on the propulsion system.

Incat Crowther will provide naval architecture and design services to America’s largest shipbuilder HII for ROMULUS unmanned surface vessels (USVs) being built under the U.S. Navy's Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) program.HII has been awarded a U.S. Navy contract to build the vessels, with Incat Crowther supporting the program through its Louisiana-based team as a member of the ROMULUS project team.ROMULUS is a modular family of AI-enabled unmanned surface vessels based on HII's open-architecture Odyssey Advanced Autonomy Solutions and designed to address current and emerging U.S.

Ongoing fleet renewal by niche player Cool Carriers indicates continuing competitiveness at scale of the specialized, pallet-optimized reefership.Not so long ago, it seemed that the unrelenting march of containerization and ever-widening influence of the powerful ocean container line entities would finally usurp the conventional, breakbulk refrigerated cargo vessel. However, Limassol, Cyprus-headquartered Cool Carriers, the largest operator in the sector, displays remarkable resilience…

The United States is having a maritime moment. Maritime is back on the national agenda. The Maritime Action Plan, the SHIPS for America Act,and now the Administration’s August 13 memorandum on rebuilding the Navy and America’s shipbuilding industrial base have renewed the conversation about rebuilding America's maritime capability. The focus on shipyards, workforce development, the merchant marine, and domestic vessel construction is both encouraging and long overdue.After more than two decades designing commercial vessels, I’m encouraged by the attention.

Stephen M. Carmel & MarAd are aiming to make this U.S. Maritime Rebuild StickFor anyone who has spent a career in the U.S. maritime industry, the past two years have been unusual by any metric. Maritime has moved from the far margins of federal policy discussions to center stage, with rebuilding American shipbuilding, the Merchant Marine and the maritime industrial base elevated a national priority. Action to shore up the big ship, military portion of the equation has been rapid and measurable.

The Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA), the national association representing the U.S. shipbuilding, maintenance and repair industry, announced the incoming chairs of its Industry Partners Committee, which represents SCA’s supplier and manufacturer members across the country.John Rhatigan, Chairman of the Marine Machinery Association, is ascending from Vice Chairman to Chairman of the Industry Partners Committee, assuming the position from Mark Haller, President and Owner of Tri-Tec Manufacturing, LLC. This will be Mr.

The first thing that stands out when you walk through a modern shipyard isn't the technology – it's the sheer scale of the work and the size of the parts going into these massive ships the size of city blocks. I recently visited a Korean shipyard watching teams of workers join two 50-foot-tall, 100,000-pound hull sections into place. This particular shipyard does this every day, building up to 40 ships a year.Seeing that kind of scale firsthand puts into perspective just how much coordination, labor, and industrial capacity it takes to keep a yard operating at full speed.

MacGregor has secured orders to deliver deck cranes, handling equipment, and deck machinery for four new oceanographic research vessels. The orders were booked into MacGregor’s second and third quarter 2026 order intake, with equipment deliveries starting in 2027 and scheduled to complete by the third quarter of 2029 at the latest. Two of the vessels will be built at the GONDAN Shipbuilders in Spain for the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH). The remaining two…

Spanish shipyard GONDAN Shipbuilders has launched a 120-metre Ocean Energy Support Vessel (OESV) for Østensjø Rederi, the largest vessel built by the shipyard to date.The C513 OESV was launched at GONDAN's Figueras facility and will now undergo final outfitting and sea trials ahead of scheduled delivery in late 2027.Designed by Salt Ship Design, the vessel has a beam of 23 meters and is intended for operations including walk-to-work personnel transfers, commissioning service operation vessel (CSOV) support for offshore wind…

Twenty-five people died in a fire aboard a foreign cargo vessel undergoing repairs at a state-owned shipyard in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on Thursday, state media reported.The fire broke out at about 11:15 a.m. (0315 GMT) at the Qingdao Beihai shipyard during repair and inspection works, state-run Xinhua said. Of the 42 people onboard, 12 were evacuated safely and five were injured and hospitalised.The blaze was extinguished by early afternoon, state media said.A picture of the scene released by Xinhua showed the vessel involved to be the Ocean Melody.

Part of a group of companies that make up Fraser Industries, Fraser Shipyard is a 138-year-old on Lake Superior, an organization which makes equal revenue from newbuild and ship repair, able to work in both steel and aluminum. Recently it signed a collaboration agreement with HD Hyundai to help migrate process and technology from one of the world’s biggest and best shipyard to the shores of Lake Superior. Patrick Kelly, CEO, Fraser Shipyard, discussed the importance of this agreement…

An evaluation study based on reference data from a Suezmax crude oil tanker has demonstrated the benefits of using Thordon Bearings’ T-BOSS shaftline solution instead of a conventional oil lubricated sterntube system.The study assessed the CAPEX for a sterntubeless T-BOSS (Thordon - Blue Ocean Stern Space) system installed on a 274m (899ft.)-long tanker, assuming a shaft diameter of 670mm (26”) as the baseline. The study established that the T-BOSS provides benefits for ship designers and shipbuilders…

Wind propulsion will have its largest-ever presence at the Shipbuilding, Machinery and Marine Technology (SMM) trade fair in September, underlining the rapid commercial expansion of one of shipping's fastest-growing decarbonization technology sectors.As shipowners seek practical solutions to reduce fuel consumption and comply with tightening emissions regulations, wind-assisted and primary wind propulsion technologies will be showcased across the exhibition halls in greater numbers than at any previous edition of the Hamburg-based maritime trade fair.Held September 1-4…

Lehmann Marine has secured the debut commercial order for its newly developed AQUBE liquid-cooled battery system.The high-power energy storage platform AQUBE has been selected by shipbuilder Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven to power a research vessel built for the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany’s national research center for aeronautics, space, energy, and transport.Set for delivery in 2027, a new 48-meter-long, 11.5-meter-wide DLR seagoing technology platform will serve as an ocean-going…

The two-day maritime conference will take place at Copenhagen’s AC Bella Sky Convention Center on 23-24 February 2027.World Maritime Forum 2027 will bring the international maritime community back to Copenhagen for a two-day event at the AC Bella Sky Convention Center. Organised by IGGS Group, the forum is intended for shipowners, ship managers, shipbuilders, ports, authorities, maritime suppliers and service providers. It will take place as the industry considers increasingly important decisions around fleet investment…

Bollinger Shipyards, a designer and builder of high-performance military and commercial vessels, announced a new partnership with the Gulfport School District to launch "Bollinger NextGen Shipbuilders," a work-based learning program designed to introduce high school students to the skills, trades and career pathways that support the Gulf Coast’s shipbuilding industry.Through the initiative, Gulfport High School students will gain hands-on exposure to five core maritime manufacturing disciplines: welding, pipefitting, marine electrical, maritime carpentry, and rigging and fitting.

JLL announced that it has been exclusively retained to provide strategic advisory and brokerage services for Mare Island Maritime Campus, a maritime industrial property with two million square feet of existing buildings and four operational dry docks. Located in Vallejo, California, the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard represents an opportunity as federal mandates and bipartisan legislation drive the largest maritime industrial mobilization since World War II.JLL is advising The Nimitz Group…

U.S. President Donald Trump has allowed the Navy to build ships overseas and ordered it to abandon a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers and instead return to using steam catapults, the White House said on Thursday.Trump signed a national security memorandum directing the change, which would require the fourth vessel in the Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers to abandon the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) used on the first three vessels.

U.S. President Donald Trump has allowed the Navy to build ships overseas and ordered it to abandon a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers and instead return to using steam catapults, the White House said on Thursday.Trump signed a national security memorandum directing the change, which would require the fourth vessel in the Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers to abandon the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) used on the first three vessels.

U.S. officials on Monday said they are working closely with foreign investors to identify gaps in the U.S. manufacturing supply chain and to help small- and medium-sized businesses scale up to meet rising demand as foreign investments surge.Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Chris Pilkerton and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler told Reuters that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign imports and deregulation were fueling foreign investments in manufacturing…

President Donald Trump has extended for 90 days a waiver allowing foreign-flagged ships to transport oil and other commodities between U.S. ports, but imposed new limits after shipbuilders and their allies in Congress argued the policy was undermining the domestic maritime industry, the White House said.The extension, finalized on Monday, comes as the war with Iran disrupts global crude flows and pushes up fuel costs, increasing pressure on the administration to find ways to ease…