John Fredriksen-controlled Avance Gas agreed to sell its entire very large gas carrier (VLGC) fleet to Andreas Sohmen-Pao’s BW LPG in a $1.05bn cash and shares deal. The dual-listed unit of Singapore’s BW Group will be taking over 12 ships built between 2015 and 2023, adding to its fleet of 41 VLGCs. The Houthi campaign against merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden showed no sign of abating, with the militant group celebrating some big hits, most notably the laden Sounion, a suezmax attacked multiple times last Wednesday, which now risks becoming the worst tanker spill of the 21st century. The ship, owned by Greece’s Delta Tankers, has been on fire since August 23 with the Houthis releasing a dramatic video of the moment they set it ablaze. Crowley and SEACOR Holdings officially launched Fairwater Holdings, combining the pair’s American petroleum and chemical tanker fleets. Fairwater is active in all major Jones Act coastwise tank vessel trades. The fleet consists of 31 owned vessels, including medium-range product tankers, aframaxes and articulated tug-barges (ATBs). Fairwater also provides shipmanagement services for 20 third-party owned vessels. Investors advised by JP Morgan Asset Management acquired US shipping and logistics firm Bold Ocean from private equity firm Nova Infrastructure for an undisclosed sum. Annapolis, Maryland-based Bold Ocean operates nine vessels that transport goods under long-term charter with the US government. A third Japanese company has come clean that it altered test results for hundreds of ship engines manufactured since the year 2000. Kawasaki Heavy Industries joins IHI Power Systems and Hitachi Zosen in a rumbling Japanese engine scandal as Tokyo investigates all the nation’s ship engine manufacturers. Supply chain chaos gripped Bangladesh, the world’s third-largest exporter of clothing, for much of the month, creating the longest berthing delays anywhere across the globe. Following weeks of protests, curfews, and internet outages, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, resigned after 15 years of leading Bangladesh. Maersk outlined its newbuild policy through to 2030 at its interims, with two notable news items. First, its intention not to increase its fleet size above today’s 4.3m teu through to the end of the decade, and secondly, Maersk’s admission that it will proceed with orders for dual fuel ships which can use bio-LNG, a fuel type the carrier had previously dismissed. A spectacular explosion on the boxship YM Mobility at a container terminal in Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, captured on video, made headlines around the world. Remarkably no one was injured in the explosion with China’s Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) reiterating warnings about transporting hazardous cargoes properly. Pipavav Shipyard, the largest shipyard in India by capacity, is set to resume operations having come out of bankruptcy. Pipavav’s return follows a swathe of other recent Indian yard announcements such as defence contractors foraying into commercial shipbuilding, and new yard capacity opening up on both the east and west coast of the world’s most populous nation. Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) debuted what it claims is the the world’s first commercial-use ammonia-fuelled vessel. The Sakigake tugboat was retrofitted from an LNG-fuelled vessel to an ammonia one and will now operate in Tokyo Bay leapfrogging ahead of the Fortescue Green Pioneer, a platform supply vessel, which Australian miner Fortescue has developed.