Worldwide: Marine/ Shipping

The Trump administration's Maritime Action Plan aims to rebuild US shipbuilding capacity, modernize ports, and expand the merchant fleet through unprecedented public-private partnerships.

The EU adopts its 20th sanctions package against Russia, introducing sweeping measures across energy, finance, trade, and military sectors while targeting shadow fleet operations and crypto-asset service providers.

Artificial intelligence is steadily transforming the maritime industry’s architecture — from predictive maintenance, safety, and ship security to navigation and port logistics, and even the manufacturing of autonomous ships.

Recently enacted federal legislation geared toward making employment at sea safer has resulted in many mariners being denied credentials and/or renewals of their credentials through the National Maritime Center. 46 USC 7511, enacted in 2022, bans the issuance of any merchant marine credentials (MMC) to anyone who has been convicted under the federal sexual abuse statutes (18 USC Ch 109A) or under state statutes deemed substantially similar.

While private equity investors continue to be attracted to the reliable non-cyclical returns associated with transportation assets, several headwinds over the past 12 months served to dampen M&A activity in the sector in 2025.

The White House's fiscal year 2027 budget proposes a historic $65.8 billion investment in U.S. Navy shipbuilding—the largest in over 60 years—alongside the creation of a groundbreaking Maritime Security Trust Fund. This ambitious plan aims to revitalize America's maritime industry through unprecedented federal spending, new infrastructure programs, and a fee on foreign-built ships docking at U.S. ports.

Maritime biofuels are “making waves” in 2026. Growing decarbonization efforts have the potential to create synergies between the maritime and biofuel sectors.

On Mar. 6th, President Donald J. Trump issued, "effective immediately", a directive ordering the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation ("DFC") to act as a federal "sovereign backstop"...

Jones Act waiver possibilities appear in the news pretty much every time there is a spike in the price of fuel in the United States.