Washington’s hardline campaign against Caracas escalated dramatically with the January 3 capture of president Nicolás Maduro by US forces. Since then, the Trump administration has made it clear it intends to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely while it tries to rebuild the country’s crumbling oil sector. To date, the US has seized seven tankers related to Venezuelan oil trades over the past two months. The Trump administration’s hard stance against Iran and Greenland this month has also rippled through shipping markets. Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima / Donald Trump TruthSocial account Brokers have been left dumbfounded at South Korea’s Sinokor’s market-altering decision to largely exit the container scene, selling most of its boxships to Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), in favour of supertankers, paying over the odds for available VLCC tonnage, having secured more than 30 VLCCs in the past month and aiming to bag another 20 or so en route to becoming the world’s largest VLCC owner. A full-blown boardroom fight is taking shape in the dry bulk sector after Diana Shipping moved to nominate an entirely new slate of directors at Genco Shipping & Trading, escalating a standoff over consolidation and control. Athens-based Diana, which owns about 14.8% of Genco, said it plans to put forward six director candidates for election at Genco’s 2026 annual meeting. The move follows Genco’s rejection of Diana’s non-binding, all-cash offer to buy the remaining shares it does not already own for $20.60 per share. In a sign of the sweeping upgrades in maritime infrastructure across the coastlines of the world’s most populous nation, Adani’s Mundra port has this month berthed a fully laden VLCC – a first for India, and something that promises to alter the global seaborne tanker trading map. The giant 318,926 dwt New Renown, owned by Hong Kong’s Associated Maritime, docked at the port located in the northwest of the country. Previously, India’s VLCC cargoes typically discharged via offshore single-point moorings, lightering, or at foreign ports before onward transportation to refineries. Imabari Shipbuilding completed the acquisition of a controlling stake in Japan Marine United (JMU), a deal that reshapes Japan’s shipbuilding landscape and aligns closely with Tokyo’s longer-term ambition to consolidate and revitalise the sector in the face of rising Chinese and South Korean competition. Imabari confirmed it has taken a 60% stake in JMU, making the yard group a subsidiary and creating Japan’s largest shipbuilder by output. The combined group ranks as the world’s fourth-largest shipbuilder by tonnage. Japan Marine United China’s COSCO Shipping Bulk has moved to blur the traditional lines between dry bulk and liner shipping, ordering a series of container-capable newcastlemax bulk carriers in a deal that underlines how cargo flexibility is becoming a strategic asset. CSSC Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding has been tasked with building three 210,000 dwt bulk carriers featuring methanol- and ammonia-ready designs and the ability to carry containers alongside bulk and general cargo. TagsSplash Extra January 2026