Breakbulk News

Extra-loaders carrying spillover cargo are dramatically increasing container imports at the Port of Everett in Washington state.

In a bid for predictability, shippers are signing up for long-term MPV charters despite rocketing rates fueled by strong cargo demand from traditional customers and freight forwarders managing spillover container cargo.

While newbuildings add needed tonnage to the MPV/HL fleet, they will not stave off what sector participants say is a looming capacity shortage.

Ambitious global plans to increase wind energy capacity, ongoing spillover demand from the container market, and a scant orderbook are poised to drive a capacity shortage in the multipurpose vessel market.

"Spillover" demand in the MPV/HL carrier segment is not yet slowing, thanks to ongoing port congestion and shippers willing to use alternatives to traditional container shipping.

Low-code digital platform Voyager Portal is focused on reducing complexity and cost in non-containerized global shipping operations.

While the urgency of containers being carried on multipurpose/heavy-lift vessels is easing, the spillover market will continue to affect the MPV sector into 2023, analysts say.

Lasse Kristoffersen, former CEO of bulk operator Torvald Klaveness, will take the helm of Wallenius Wilhelmsen

Consolidation and a looming capacity shortage will shape the MPV sector once the spillover market has calmed.

Elevated freight rates and strong high and heavy and breakbulk volumes boosted roll-on/roll-off carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s earnings even as vehicle volumes slide due to chip and parts shortages.

Both shipper panic and carrier euphoria are calming as the breakbulk market becomes more predictable, albeit at higher rates.

New projects and those that had been delayed have begun moving, but the truck driver shortage and higher fuel costs could dampen a bright outlook for the US heavy-haul sector.

A strong short-term market is pushing MPV/HL demand, but carriers sense the market frenzy is abating.

Investments in the US' budding offshore wind industry are gaining momentum along the eastern seaboard, with Siemens Gamesa building the first US offshore wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in Virginia.

While the “spillover” container market that is driving up MPV rates and creating a capacity shortage will eventually dissipate, in the longer term a low orderbook could mean a capacity shortage, analyst Drewry says.

Combi Lift’s forwarding operation will organize the shipment of equipment components or individual pieces of equipment that would normally be too small to interest its projects division.

Equipment costs and a lack of skilled drivers may undercut a bright forecast for heavy haul truckers as wind energy, industrial, and infrastructure projects ramp up.

The spillover market will not dissipate until box rates dip below five figures, according to Geodis' senior VP for global ocean freight.

Skyrocketing demand is pushing imports into the US toward MPV/HL and other non-container carriers in a wave of spillover cargo.

In a change from long-held norms, earlier contracting is becoming more standard in the breakbulk and project market as cargo shippers labor to secure capacity and reduce risk and price volatility.

Oslo-based Höegh’s latest order for vehicle carriers comes amid growth in imports of China-made vehicles at European ports.

While the ro/ro market booms thanks to high consumer demand and spillover container cargo, soaring vessel costs and an ongoing chip shortage add risk.

Ro/ro carriers are adding capacity and ordering ships as Brexit snarls supply chains and complicates European labor shortages.

Car dealers are "screaming" for inventory, but COVID-19 shutdowns and a snarled semiconductor supply chain are throwing up obstacles to production.

Container shippers are increasingly switching to breakbulk solutions to move their cargo, pushing MPV/HL bookings into the fall and driving up rates.

Controlling dangerous wood-boring pests in wood packaging material will require more consistent enforcement across the US and helping the private sector learn how to look for these pests themselves.

Forward bookings are becoming the norm as some MPV/HL carriers require premiums for laycan dates, and a dearth of newbuildings in the sector implies that the current market will not slow down in the short term.

Booming demand for machine tools and other breakbulk and high and heavy cargo boosted ro/ro carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s volumes during the second quarter.

Shippers eager to move computer components, semiconductor chips, and auto production parts are eating up super-heavy air capacity even as demand for traditional OOG cargo improves.

Eneti, formerly known as Scorpio Bulkers, is accelerating its transition from bulk carrier to offshore wind specialist with the acquisition of Seajacks International and its fleet of five wind turbine installation vessels (WTIVs).

Spillover container cargo is driving the strongest breakbulk market in more than a decade, MPV/HL carriers say.

MOL’s order for LNG-fueled car carriers shows that ro-ro newbuildings are stacking up as the sector pivots toward lower-carbon and next-generation fuels.

A Maryland developer has committed to building a 1.2 GW offshore wind project and a multi-million-dollar monopile manufacturing facility.

Project network EPN and digital shipping platform Shipnext are working together to reduce the chronic data overload that comes with project shipping.

As desperate shippers search for cargo solutions and sop up breakbulk capacity, the new MPV/HL sentiment index reveals strong short-term confidence but longer-term wariness in the breakbulk sector.

After a COVID-19 pandemic lull, violations of ISPM 15 regulations around dangerous insects are increasing in Houston and elsewhere, triggering costly remedies and intense frustration in the breakbulk and project cargo community.

After a COVID-19 pandemic lull, violations of ISPM 15 regulations around dangerous insects are increasing in Houston and elsewhere, triggering costly remedies and intense frustration in the breakbulk and project cargo community.

The new ships will be capable of using liquefied natural gas, liquefied biogas, and synthetic diesel, with an option for battery power, according to Wallenius Marine.

The Port of Salem, New Jersey, has been awarded a $9 million federal infrastructure grant to help meet offshore wind logistics and manufacturing requirements.

MPVs are booked through the summer, but improving charter rates are not yet sufficient to support newbuildings, analysts say.