HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore (HD KSOE) announced on November 9 that it had signed a construction contract for two LNG carriers with an African shipping company. The total amount is 662.9 billion won. They will be built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and are scheduled to be delivered in the second half of 2030. After including the order, the company has received a total of 195 orders this year, worth 21.6 billion US dollars, completing 93.1% of the annual target of 2.331 billion US dollars (provisional caliber). In terms of ship type, it includes 19 LNG ships, 38 container ships, 62 LPG/ammonia carriers, 11 oil tankers, 59 product oil tankers, 2 PCTC, 2 RoRo, 1 icebreaker and 1 FSRU.
According to Jingjiang’s announcement, from January to September this year, Jingjiang Shipbuilding completed 83 ships with a deadweight of 7.841 million, a year-on-year increase of 20.4%; received 119 new orders with a deadweight of 13.545 million, a year-on-year increase of 73.9%; and held orders for 458 ships with a deadweight of 50.496 million, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%. The production plan has been scheduled to 2030. The leading enterprise New Era Shipbuilding has four docks. Recently, three LNG dual-fuel powered ships went to sea on the same day, and one 300,000-ton VLCC was launched out of dock. Its VLCC construction cycle has been shortened from about 11 months to about 10 months. It is expected that the VLCC completion volume this year will increase by 15%-20% year-on-year. As of the end of September, a total of 25 new ships have been delivered. From January to September, the operating income of enterprises above designated size in Jingjiang's shipbuilding industry was 42 billion yuan. A year-on-year increase of more than 25%.
Released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange on November 6, the Shanghai Export Container Freight Index (SCFI) reported 3,633.45 points, down 53.90 points or 1.46% from the previous issue. Looking at routes, the Far East-US East and Far East-Europe suffered the largest declines, while the US-West and Mediterranean lines were relatively resilient, while the Mediterranean line rose; the concentrated shipments before the Christmas season are almost over, and the market has entered the wait-and-see period before the traditional off-season. Many liner companies have issued signals to increase freight rates on the European line before November 15 in an attempt to stabilize expectations.
The latest analysis from Sea-Intelligence states that the global container fleet will increase from the current approximately 34 million TEU to 40 million TEU in the second quarter of 2028 and 50 million TEU in the third quarter of 2030, the largest expansion in the history of container shipping; the average number of new ship deliveries in the 2027-2030 quarter will be 1 million TEU, with a peak of 1.8 million TEU in the third quarter of 2028. Added to the approximately 8% effective capacity increase brought by the return of the Asia-Europe route to Suez, The cumulative capacity growth by the end of this decade may exceed 50%. Even if the record scrapping volume in 2016 is repeated every year, less than 17% of the new capacity can be absorbed, and the annual fleet growth rate will still reach 8.5%; by 2030, approximately 10.8 million TEU capacity will be located on ships over 20 years old.
Equinor launched the K-lab Marine Robot Center (KNARR) at the Kårstø treatment plant on October 28. It is used for the testing, certification and development of marine robotic technology. It is one of the first testing centers of its kind in Norway and the world to be connected to operating facilities. The center has designated three water depth test areas of 25 meters, 140 meters and 250 meters, open to the entire maritime industry. The key directions include detection, autonomous operations, environmental monitoring and the maintenance and security of offshore facilities. The center was opened by Eileen Fugelsnes, Norway’s Minister of Research and Higher Education.
HII held a ceremony in New Iberia, Louisiana, USA, on October 28 to celebrate the progress in the production of the ROMULUS Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) built for the U.S. Navy. The first ship, ROMULUS 151, completed the installation of a commemorative nameplate. The U.S. Navy recently awarded HII a contract to build 10 ROMULUS 151s, part of the Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV) project. The boat is based on HII's Odyssey autonomous architecture, which is a modular AI empowerment platform. It can undertake intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mine countermeasures and strike tasks; its construction is shared by Breaux Brothers, Halimar Shipyard and other Gulf of Mexico maritime partners.
Damen released the design of the CFe 1100 feeder container ship on November 6, which meets the demand for efficient and flexible transport capacity in regional and international feeder transportation. This type of ship is equipped with a PTO/PTI hybrid system as standard: in PTO mode, the main engine supplies electricity on board (including reefer load), reducing auxiliary engine operation, and PTI provides electric boost to increase speed and maneuverability. The design reserves space for methanol fuel modification and the location of the methanol tank, and the fuel preparation plan will be verified by DNV. It is also equipped with an independent battery compartment, which can be compatible with both battery and methanol propulsion.
PSA Singapore and Cisco announced a strategic cooperation to develop an AI-driven observability and event management platform proof-of-concept at Tuas Port, with the goal of improving the digital resilience of the world's largest fully automated container terminal. Cisco research said that the average annual downtime cost of the organization has risen to US$300 million, and once key systems such as the terminal operating system (TOS) are interrupted, it will directly affect the flow of container cargo and yard operations; the two parties said that the cooperation will use AI for fault warning and event handling.