BERGITTA

Each year, as we prepare for the largest U.S. based maritime industry conference in New Orleans, we tend to look back on the state of the industry and initiatives that were announced from the conference that took place the year before. 2023 provided us with plenty to talk about. In September of 2023, while the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the global shipbuilding industry were fixated on “emissions” and alternative fuels, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro held the opening meeting of the Government Shipbuilders Council.

A Chinese fishing vessel is under the control of alleged pirates in Somalia's waters in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, the European Union's anti-piracy naval force said on Thursday.The anti-piracy force said the vessel with up to 18 crew members on board had been taken over by pirates, some armed with AK-47s and machine guns. It classified the incident as a robbery at sea.No crew members were injured in the incident, the anti-piracy force added.Somali pirates caused havoc in the waters off the Horn of Africa nation's long coastline between 2008 and 2018. They had been dormant until late last year when pirate activity started to pick up again.

A rescue operation is under way for the crew of a Panama-flagged cargo vessel that was abandoned off the port of Hodeidah in the Red Sea, three maritime security sources said on Thursday.The cause of the incident remained unclear and the number of crew on board was not known.The crew were forced to abandon the vessel, one of the sources told Reuters, adding that the ship experienced engine problems. Another source said an internal explosion occurred.Iran-aligned Houthi forces have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war between Hamas and Israel.

Spoiler Alert: we already know what to do. Some of it just isn’t physically possible. Help isn’t going to come from South Korea.Just two days following Donald Trump’s historic election victory, positioning him to become just the second U.S. President to be elected twice, in separate, non-following terms, the headlines curiously turned to shipbuilding. Which is a nice thing, since the average American thinks very little about that industry on a daily basis. Digging deeper, it seems that America’s once dominant shipbuilding industry needs help, and the incoming administration thinks that the answers can be found in South Korea.First things first: South Korea does build ships; a lot of them.

HII announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of W International SC, LLC and Vivid Empire SC, LLC (collectively “W International”), a South Carolina-based complex metal fabricator specializing in the manufacture of shipbuilding structures, modules and assemblies.Upon completion of the transaction, the manufacturing facility in Goose Creek, South Carolina, will operate within HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division. The site will support the construction of nuclear-powered submarine and aircraft carrier modules and structures for U.S. Navy programs.