LADY GRACE

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.

Product tankers shipowner d’Amico International Shipping S.A. said its operating subsidiary d’Amico Tankers D.A.C. (Ireland) signed a shipbuilding contract with Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Limited (China) for two new Medium Range 1 (MR1 – 40,000 DWT) product tanker vessels at a contract price of $43.2 million each. The ships are expected to be delivered to d'Amico Tankers in April and July 2029, respectively. In addition, d’Amico Tankers has an option, exercisable within three months of signing the shipbuilding contract, to order one or two additional ships of the same type.

Nearly 12 years after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished with 239 people on board, the mystery remains unresolved. Later this month, a new seabed search is scheduled to begin in the southern Indian Ocean, renewing hopes that long-awaited answers may finally emerge.The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The passengers included more than 150 Chinese nationals, around 50 Malaysians, and citizens from several other countries, including France, Australia, the United States, India, Canada and Ukraine. Despite one of the most extensive aviation investigations in history, the aircraft has never been found.