The Red Sea shipping crisis dominated headlines throughout the year. The Houthis displayed greater sophistication in their attacks on merchant shipping, and have now targeted more than 120 ships, forcing a giant swathe of the global merchant fleet to reroute via the Cape of Good Hope. With no resolution on the near three-year war between Russia and Ukraine, the Black Sea remained an area of heightened security concern, with ships heading there tending to be far older than before the conflict started. The conflict also means shipping has had to accept that as much as one in 10 ships now operate in an alternate, ‘shadow’ environment. Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the US on January 20, having won the presidential election in November, likely ushering in another period of trade wars. The Dali containership became the most high-profile shipping casualty since the Ever Given Suez blocking incident of 2021. The 9,962 teu Dali lost power while leaving Baltimore and took out the American city’s largest bridge, killing six people and closing most of the port for months while a huge salvage operation got underway. Legal cases spiralling into hundreds of millions of dollars are underway. NTSB Global liners shuffled their alliances in a big way. THE Alliance will become the Premier Alliance from next February, with Ocean Network Express (ONE), HMM and Yang Ming Marine Transportation as partners, and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) helping plug gaps on Asia-Europe tradelanes. From the end of January next year, MSC is ditching Maersk in the 2M vessel sharing agreement to largely go it alone, and Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd subsequently exiting THE Alliance to join the Danish carrier in what will be called the Gemini Cooperation. Existing liner group Ocean Alliance, made up of CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen and OOCL, has agreed to continue its vessel-sharing agreement until the end of March 2032. The past 12 months have been exceptional for consolidation, led by shipping tech, but with some very notable shipowner deals too. Avance Gas sold all its LPG vessels to BW LPG and Exmar, ADNOC Logistics & Services bought Navig8, Star Bulk and Eagle Bulk officially combined, as did Cetus Maritime and Nachipa Corp. In Japan, Japanese financial services company Orix Corporation bought Osaka’s largest shipowner, Santoku Senpaku, while one of the most famous names in the country’s shipowning history, Sanko Steamship, let go of its last ship. Avance Gas The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) gradually got back to business as normal as the year progressed, putting the country’s worst drought on record behind it. Somali pirates reappeared after a nearly six-year hiatus, hijacking a number of vessels with a view to demanding ransoms for kidnapped crews. January 1 saw one of the largest regional green regulations in the history of shipping come into effect with the industry included in the European Union’s emissions trading system (EU ETS). Vessels visiting EU ports are now required to offset their applicable CO2 voyage emissions through the purchase of an equivalent number of EU Allowances. The start of next year sees the launch of FuelEU Maritime compelling shipowners, managers, and charterers to hasten the adoption of renewable and low-carbon fuels in their vessels’ operations. Arsenio Dominguez Velasco became the 10th secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on January 1, taking over from Kitack Lim. It has been a banner year for Asia’s shi