Insurance rates for ships trading in the Black Sea have jumped sharply following a fresh wave of attacks on vessels linked to Russia. Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow could expand its response if such attacks continue, saying retaliatory measures could extend to ships belonging to countries that support Ukraine. Ukrainian special forces are also thought to have been behind the targeting of a product tanker at anchor thousand of kilometres away off Senegal.

Hapag-Lloyd, Mediterranean Shipping Co and Maersk have all been linked this week to potential interest in acquiring Israeli carrier ZIM.

Gunvor entered a new chapter after its management team agreed to buy out the company’s existing ownership, ending Torbjörn Törnqvist’s long run as majority shareholder. The Swiss-based commodity trading giant will now be fully owned by a group of senior employees, with no outside shareholders involved.

This week we carried two Maritime CEO interviews, with StormGeo CEO Kim Sørensen and Léon Gommans, the CEO of Dutch maritime digital specialist Teqplay.

This week’s standout Contribution came from Carl Martin Faannessen, CEO of Noatun Maritime, who described why he was in two minds when it comes to AI and crewing. “An AI will never ask a seafarer for money, but an AI also will not build the connective tissue that fosters loyalty and understanding,” he wrote. 

We’ve had a tremendous amount of comments and thoughts in recent weeks on how AI is reshaping shipping operations at sea and ashore, something that forms this week’s Splash Wrap podcast, carried below.