Splash Wrap: Hormuz, Hamburg and the ghosts of the last boom
The war around the Strait of Hormuz entered a tanker-for-tanker phase, with the US striking Iranian state tankers in retaliation for attacks on commercial shipping, while a laden VLCC sits abandoned and listing off Oman. SMM, Europe's largest shipping exhibition, ran in Hamburg, and SplashTech published its first magazine. Inmarsat Maritime survey found machinery failure is the biggest cause of maritime incidents, accounting for about 60% of cases, and Q-CTRL demonstrated quantum navigation in a Coral Sea trial, positioning a vessel within about one nautical mile without GPS.
Why it matters: This relates to the theme of geopolitical risk and supply chain resilience, as the Hormuz conflict and the rise of quantum navigation highlight vulnerabilities in maritime shipping.