FEED FISKAA

If 2025 proved anything for Germany’s shipbuilding and marine equipment sector, it is that the industry retains both resilience and relevance, even amid geopolitical turbulence. According to The Association for Shipbuilding and Marine Technology (VSM), the year closed with strong order activity, renewed investor confidence and a clear signal that German yards and suppliers remain essential to Europe’s maritime industrial base.One of the year’s most tangible confidence boosters came early. In January, the shipyards in Flensburg and Rendsburg found new owners from within the maritime industry just weeks after insolvency proceedings began.

China launched its most extensive war games around Taiwan on Monday to showcase Beijing's ability to cut off the island from outside support in a conflict, testing Taipei's resolve to defend itself and its arsenal of U.S.-made weapons.The Eastern Theatre Command said it had deployed troops, warships, fighter jets and artillery for its "Justice Mission 2025" exercises to encircle the democratically-governed island, conduct live fire and simulated strikes on land and sea targets, and drills to blockade Taiwan's main ports.

The White House has ordered U.S. military forces to focus almost exclusively on enforcing a "quarantine" of Venezuelan oil for at least the next two months, a U.S. official told Reuters, indicating Washington is currently more interested in using economic rather than military means to pressure Caracas."While military options still exist, the focus is to first use economic pressure by enforcing sanctions to reach the outcome the White House is looking (for)," the official said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Finnish police on Wednesday seized a ship sailing from Russia on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecoms cable running from Helsinki to Estonia across the Gulf of Finland, an area hit by a string of similar incidents in recent years.The seized cargo vessel "Fitburg" was en route from the Russian port of St Petersburg to Israel at the time of the incident, Finland's Border Guard authority told a press conference in Helsinki."At the moment we suspect aggravated disruption of telecommunications and also aggravated sabotage and attempted aggravated sabotage," Helsinki Chief of Police Jari Liukku told reporters.

Taiwan remained on high alert on Wednesday after China staged massive military drills around the island the previous day, keeping its emergency maritime response centre running as it monitored Chinese naval manoeuvres, the coast guard said.The exercises named "Justice Mission 2025" saw China fire dozens of rockets towards Taiwan and deploy a large number of warships and aircraft near the island, in a show of force that drew concern from allies in the region and the west.Beijing announced late on Wednesday the completion of the drills, saying its military would remain on high alert and continue to strengthen their combat-readiness.