Trump Says China Offered to Help on Iran
FILE PHOTO: China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on May 14, 2026. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Trump Says China Offered to Help on Iran
Bloomberg
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May 14, 2026
By Omar Tamo, Eltaf Najafizada and Alex Longley (Bloomberg) –US President Donald Trump signaled China is willing to support negotiations with Iran, as he pushes for a diplomatic resolution to end the war and reopen the
Strait of Hormuz
, after a commercial vessel was apparently seized near the United Arab Emirates.
Trump, who is visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, said his counterpart offered to help, something China has not explicitly confirmed. In a readout of the meeting between Trump and Xi, a White House official said the two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must be open to support the free flow of energy.
“He said he’s not going to give them military equipment,“ Trump said, according to a clip of an interview wit
Dry Bulk Market Returns to Path of Growth
Dry Bulk Market Returns to Path of Growth
in
Dry Bulk Market
,
Hellenic Shipping News
15/05/2026
T
he story so far in 2026 has been quite a positive one for the dry bulk market. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Xclusiv said that “the first four months of 2026 have delivered an unambiguous message from the dry bulk freight market: the sharp correction that defined most of 2025 is firmly behind us, and the recovery now underway is not merely cyclical, but it is volume-driven, broad-based, and structurally compelling. Total dry bulk cargo volumes across the Janu-ary-to-April period reached 506.7 million tonnes in 2026, a 9.6% increase versus the 462.5 million tonnes recorded in the same period of 2025, and a 15.2% advance over the 439.8 million tonnes seen in the first four months of 2024.
New VesselBot Data Analysis Shows the True Emissions Gap Across Container Shipping
New VesselBot Data Analysis Shows the True Emissions Gap Across Container Shipping
in
International Shipping News
15/05/2026
VesselBot has released its latest quarterly analysis, Decoding Maritime Emissions Q1 2026: Efficiency Under Pressure, examining container shipping operations across 82,212 voyages completed by 6,187 container-carrying vessels during the first quarter of 2026.
The report provides a voyage-level analysis of emissions performance across vessel sizes, carriers, age groups, trade routes, and individual carriers, revealing why fleet-wide averages fail to reflect the operational reality of individual shipments. The findings give shippers and their logistics teams the operational visibility needed to make more informed operational decisions to optimize both transportation costs and emissions performance.
The analysis comes as container shipping faces mounting pressure from geopolitical disruption, tightening emissions regulation, and increasingly volatile trade flows.
Ke
China banks on shipping links to drive Africa zero-tariff push
China banks on shipping links to drive Africa zero-tariff push
in
International Shipping News
15/05/2026
Beijing is implementing zero-tariff measures for African exporters, a policy shift aimed at reducing the trade imbalance, lowering barriers and boosting African exports to China.
Officials say China’s expanding connectivity to African ports, which gives it greater shipping flexibility, will support the programme.
Elijah Mbaru, CEO of the Kenya Ship Agents Association, said the combination of tariff reductions and improved shipping links will create new opportunities for businesses in both regions.
China has become Africa’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade exceeding $300 billion, and has invested heavily in infrastructure, including ports, railways and roads.
However, that influence has also entrenched a large trade imbalance, with most African countries importing more than they export to China. Kenya, for instance, exported about $0.21 billion worth of goods while impor
The weaponization of shipping channels
The weaponization of shipping channels
in
International Shipping News
15/05/2026
Could imposing a toll to pass through the Strait of Malacca, the narrow stretch of water that connects the Indian Ocean with the Pacific, be a profitable business? Indonesia’s Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa seemed to float the idea at the end of April. “If we split it three ways between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, that could be quite something, right?” he said.
He later clarified that he was not being entirely serious, after Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono said that his country supported the freedom of navigation and would not be imposing tolls on vessels passing through the strait, which runs between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Nonetheless, the remark raised the specter of maritime traffic being misused for geopolitical leverage, not just in the Strait of Hormuz, but in other waterways, too. “The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced policymakers in Asia to face questions o
IEA supports digital transformation of Glaciar Pesquera fisheries fleet with Inmarsat NexusWave roll-out
IEA supports digital transformation of Glaciar Pesquera fisheries fleet with Inmarsat NexusWave roll-out
gCaptain
Total Views: 0
May 14, 2026
Inmarsat Maritime, a Viasat company, has worked with its Argentinian partner Ingenieros Electrónicos Asociados (IEA) to implement NexusWave for Glaciar Pesquera to support the fishing company’s fleetwide targets to achieve greater operational efficiency and enhanced crew welfare.
As a fully managed, bonded multi-network service,
NexusWave
delivers the cost and performance predictability Glaciar requires to meet its increasingly data-intensive commercial and crew connectivity needs. Previously, IEA had to monitor data usage and frequently experienced overages. Since NexusWave’s secure, high-speed service is truly unlimited, unexpected costs are avoided, and the technical teams can focus on more strategic tasks.
NexusWave is designed to provide enhanced network speed, increased stability and security, improved service reliability and continuous dat
Atlantic Basin gasoline: tightest balance in years
Atlantic Basin gasoline: tightest balance in years
in
International Shipping News
15/05/2026
The east-west gasoline spread has flipped after 1.5 months of Atlantic Basin barrels heading east, prompting western markets to pull back supplies. At the same time, gasoline cracks have surged to multi-year highs on both sides of the Atlantic. US pump prices are at highs last seen in 2022 (EIA) while inventories are standing lower than year-ago levels in most Atlantic Basin markets.
Kharg Stalls as Iran Expands Maritime Control Across Hormuz
Kharg Stalls as Iran Expands Maritime Control Across Hormuz
in
International Shipping News
15/05/2026
Operational Overview
The Strait of Hormuz operating environment remained heavily constrained between May 11 and May 13 as Iranian export infrastructure continued operating below normal capacity, dark tanker staging expanded across protected Iranian waters, and IRGC-linked maritime activity intensified throughout the corridor.
Kharg Island showed its clearest signs yet of sustained export disruption. For the first time since April 18, all loading terminals were observed empty despite roughly 20 dark tankers remaining staged nearby with an estimated carrying capacity exceeding 25 million barrels. No confirmed crude departures have been observed from Kharg since May 7, while imagery also identified tug and repair activity near the island’s western infrastructure, reinforcing assessments that Iran is attempting to restore damaged loading capacity while holding export tonnage in reserve.
At
Korea Invests 525 Billion Won in Ship Tech
Korea Invests 525 Billion Won in Ship Tech
in
Shipbuilding News
15/05/2026
The government will invest up to 525 billion won over five years to strengthen shipbuilding competitiveness and secure core technologies for seven types of vessels, including LNG carriers and ammonia carriers. Additionally, it will invest 1 trillion won by 2030 to secure an Artificial Intelligence (AI) shipyard capable of operating 24 hours a day. Furthermore, measures to maintain essential vessel production capacity will be pursued, such as having the public sector place orders for resource and energy vessels that have a significant impact on industrial security.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the ‘K-Shipbuilding Future Vision Forum’ on the afternoon of May 13 at the Hyundai Hotel in Ulsan to discuss strategies for leading the future shipbuilding market through strengthening the core of K-Shipbuilding and building a co-prosperity ecosystem.
At the forum, all members of the shipbuilding ecosyste
VENEX plans Guangdong green methanol plant eyeing bunker demand
VENEX plans Guangdong green methanol plant eyeing bunker demand
in
International Shipping News
15/05/2026
Towngas said its green methanol joint venture VENEX will set up a 200,000 mt/year production base in Guangdong province to produce green methanol for outlets like bunkering in Hong Kong.
The plant will be located at the Foshan (Sanshui) New Materials Industrial Park and is scheduled to start operations in 2028. The site will cover around 21 hectares.
VENEX is a 50:50 joint venture between Foran Energy and Towngas, which is also known as Hong Kong and China Gas Company.
The plant will use biomass gasification technology to produce green methanol from sugarcane bagasse and wood-processing waste. These feedstocks are widely available in South China, Towngas said.
The company said it also upcycles waste tyres and branches of sand willow shrubs into feedstocks for green methanol production.
Together with Towngas’s existing production base in Inner Mongolia, the Guangdong project will ra