This is the time of year when the annual reviews of what has gone on in the world begin to fill the media. It’s been a busy year for shipping stories, so it’s time to look back at some of the columns which have filled the back page of Splash Extra and note what we got right and what turned out to be wild speculation. Following the MEPC meeting in April, we wrote how we were cheered when the IMO agreed to put a price on emissions and called it “another example of the shipping industry introducing vital legislation in a measured, largely consensual manner, taking into account so many divergent views”. Well we all know what happened when it came to ratification in October and 2025 may well be remembered as the year decarbonisation took a backward step. As we wrote in April, regulation takes time to be agreed and implemented. We drew a parallel with the decades taken to introduce SOLAS 74 and even the OPA 90 double hull tanker rules, so let’s hope that this proves just to be a speed bump in the road to a greener future and that the rapid evolution of technology will once again outpace the speed of regulatory change. 2025 will probably be remembered as the year the US president appeared in more shipping-related media than ever before. That will probably continue to be the case in 2026 but shipping seemed to take the tariff turmoil in its stride. As the year closed, China’s exports had risen to $3.58trn, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%, so reining in China is still clearly a work in progress for the US and the on again/off again penalties such as port charges seemed to come and go with a regularity which made forward planning next to impossible. It’s difficult to know whether Mr Trump will now move on to see if there is another strategy he should adopt to revitalise manufacturing, but in the meantime, Asian exporters are successfully identifying new markets and re-shoring industry to the US seems to remain far off. One of those US industries which was earmarked to capture market share was shipbuilding. I am yet to come across any shipowners who have been actively pursued by US shipbuilders for their newbuilding enquiries and it will be fascinating to see how big a presence the Shipbuilders Council of America has at Posidonia in June. Whilst China’s share of global shipbuilding orders continued to grow during the year, in the autumn we pointed out the potential of the Indian shipbuilding industry which has attracted strong government support and investment from major players in Korea. This column firmly stands by its belief that India’s shipbuilding industry will be outscoring the US for merchant shipbuilding orders for many years to come. Whilst China will remain top of the league in shipbuilding for the coming years, it was still remarkable to see Chinese yards winning orders for over 40 very large bulk carriers in December alone, including thirty newcastlemax ships as part of the mega 87-ship COSCO order for bulkers, tankers and containerships. Amongst the stories we tried to shed light on during 2025 were the demise of the traditional run ashore and a new Tripadvisor style platform for seafarers to comment on accommodation standards onboard. The new Simandou iron ore project is unlikely to provide a happy hunting ground for sailors to enjoy much in the way of shore leave, so let’s hope that the owners who have been ordering these mega bulkers to service this project and the many other ships which have been ordered this year place plenty of