The Trump administration has begun authorising the sale of sanctioned oil tankers to approved investors who must then refurbish the vessels before returning them to legitimate crude trades, US energy secretary Chris Wright revealed on Monday, as Washington scrambles to contain soaring freight costs amid the Hormuz crisis. Attacks continued in the region, with traffic slumping. The eight-month war has now forced Iraq’s national shipping line to return to scheduled container services in the Gulf after more than half a century.

In another theatre of war, NATO said this week it is deploying additional maritime patrol aircraft, drones and radar systems to the Black Sea following a series of deadly attacks on merchant shipping off Romania and Bulgaria.

Ashore, one of the week’s biggest deals saw Australian infrastructure investor IFM Investors agree to take control of Associated British Ports in a transaction valuing Britain’s largest ports group at more than £10bn.

Over at SplashTech, the industry’s next automation breakthrough looks decidedly unglamorous. A survey of maritime technology leaders suggests paperwork, particularly noon reports, may disappear long before humans relinquish control of navigation.

This week’s Maritime CEO interview was with HarborLab founder Antonis Malaxianakis, who revealed that 75% of technical managers in Asia-Pacific still manage husbandry bills using Excel.

Our newest title, Splash Cruise, continues to assemble a unique archive of features where readers can find out about wine onboard, tipping practices, casinos, and celebrity chefs and much more besides.

Much of this week’s coverage on Splash has focused on the extraordinary, ongoing shipbuilding boom, a topic that forms this week’s Splash Wrap podcast, carried below.