PACIFIC LADY

Four shipowners from Sweden, Norway and Canada have ordered four new VINGA product tankers for delivery in 2028 and 2029, expanding the Furetank-developed vessel series to 26 ships.Two of the vessels will be owned by FureBear, a joint venture between Sweden's Furetank and Canada's Algoma Central Corporation, while Norway's O.H. Meling and Sweden's Älvtank will each take one.The order marks O.H. Meling's first investment in the VINGA series, while Älvtank already owns three of the vessels.The four 17,999-dwt product tankers will be built at China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in Yangzhou, China. They will enter the Gothia Tanker Alliance and be commercially managed by Furetank Chartering.

Finland's Steerprop won an order to supply complete propulsion packages for four Arctic Security Cutters (ASCs) being built for the US Coast Guard by Bollinger Shipyards. Each vessel will be equipped with two Steerprop Contra-Rotating Propellers (CRP) azimuth propulsors and two tunnel thrusters. The vessels will be built to an existing Multi-Purpose Icebreaker (MPI) design. During the selection process, Steerprop demonstrated that its dual-end propeller CRP concept delivered significantly higher thrust and improved efficiency compared to conventional single-propeller solutions in an MPI reference case.

At least three Indian oil refiners and a global energy major plan to stop using vessels on Iran's new blacklist, including for ship-to-ship transfers, due to security concerns, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said this week.Tehran announced on Sunday a blacklist of 45 ships it said had broken its rules for crossing the Strait of Hormuz, and would take action against any vessels transferring loads with them, escalating its threats over the key waterway for global energy supplies six months into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Iran condemned the United States' new economic sanctions on Friday as "state terrorism" and said other countries were legally obliged not to implement them, while the U.S. Treasury Department announced additional targeted Iran-related measures.The Iranian foreign ministry's statement came as mediators stepped up efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which handled 20% of world oil supplies before the war began six months ago and whose status remains the biggest obstacle to a peace deal.

Bencros Marine Fenders, a Slovakia-based manufacturer of rubber fenders for ports, tugs and workboats, announced at the SMM Start-up Night in Hamburg that the CO2 savings embedded in its fenders are now independently verified and can be transferred to its customers as certified emission reductions. The first certificates go live on September 2, 2026 on the registry of carbon standard Proba.Bencros manufactures fenders from rejected rubber compounds sourced from tire factories and industrial rubber production, blended with rubber powder from grinded end-of-life tires. In 2024 and 2025 the company reused 5,070 tons of rubber waste in this way.