<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">It&amp;rsquo;s a reporter&amp;rsquo;s worst nightmare, or close to it. You file a story, it gets published in print and events overtake it that makes you as the writer look like an ignoramus.
 
 </div>

It&rsquo;s a reporter&rsquo;s worst nightmare, or close to it. You file a story, it gets published in print and events overtake it that makes you as the writer look like an ignoramus.

<div>It&amp;rsquo;s a reporter&amp;rsquo;s worst nightmare, or close to it. You file a story, it gets published in print and events overtake it that makes you as the writer look like an ignoramus.Such is the case with my <a>JOC column</a> scheduled for next week&amp;rsquo;s edition but already out in electronic form. The premise of the piece is that in the decade since the 10-day work stoppage in 2002, the West Coast waterfront, at least for container trade, has become one that is more peaceful, dependable and respectful of shippers&amp;rsquo; cargo. This shift was born out of competitive reality: the West Coast...

It&rsquo;s a reporter&rsquo;s worst nightmare, or close to it. You file a story, it gets published in print and events overtake it that makes you as the writer look like an ignoramus. Such is the case with my JOC column scheduled for next week&rsquo;s edition but already out in electronic form. The premise of the piece is that in the decade since the 10-day work stoppage in 2002, the West Coast waterfront, at least for container trade, has become one that is more peaceful, dependable and respectful of shippers&rsquo; cargo. This shift was born out of competitive reality: the West Coast unlike in the 1960s through the 1990s, has competition, whether from Canada or the U.S. East Coast and this is even before the Panama Canal is expanded in 2014. The point was that a West Coast port shutdown today could only come from the outside &ndash; like, for example, from the Occupy movement, which plans to disrupt the ports on Dec. 12 &ndash; and NOT from intra-industry (i.e. labor-management) squabbles that led to the 2002 episode. I said that the disruption stemming from the ECT grain terminal in Longview, Wash., is limited to the bulk handling sector, and isn&rsquo;t really related to containers. The only problem with all that was that as the article went to press, news broke that negotiations with the ILWU office clerical unit had crumbled after more than a year of on-again/off-again dialogue. Jim McKenna, who I reached after the deadline for the column, quickly disabused me of the idea that it&rsquo;s &ldquo;peace in our time&rdquo; on the West Coast container docks. &ldquo;The reality is, yeah, there is concern,&rdquo; McKenna said of possible disruption stemming from the breakdown in the office clerical talks. &ldquo;We have worked real hard to change a perception and this is something that could turn that on its head, and that is and should be a concern for all of us.&rdquo; Now with the article in print, the emails are coming in. One was from a West Coast source, who like many when talking about union matters prefers to be off the record. The source took exception to the entire premise of the article, not just the issue of the office clerical talks. &ldquo;I disagree with your view of relative labor piece on the West Coast. I think there is growing concern among carriers and BCO&rsquo;s that the West Coast is becoming more uncertain with regard to labor reliability. It is something I hear on a daily basis,&rdquo; the source wrote. &ldquo;EGT is not a member of PMA but the union lashed out at container terminal operators who were simply operating as usual under the terms of their contract with the ILWU &ndash; but they were the ones targeted. You will also recall that the ILWU up and down the coast, stopped work at the time when (ILWU President Jim) McElrath walked into a courthouse in Longview &ndash; again, disrupting operations at terminals. Local 10 in Oakland was a willing partner in the shutdown of the Port of Oakland several weeks ago &ndash; with union members not showing up to work and marching with the Occupy folks.&rdquo; We will see how this plays out. With the U.S. economy perking up and an early Chinese New Year, shippers are scrambling to get goods into the country before China shuts down. Disruption on the West Coast right now would be painful, and not just for me. Peter Tirschwell is senior vice president of strategy at UBM Global Trade. Contact him at ptirschwell@joc.com , and follow him at twitter.com/PeterTirschwell .

Maritime

Forwarding

Longshore labor

ILWU Turbulence Hits West Coast Ports

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Baker Hughes, Halliburton and SLB, key drivers of oil and gas project cargoes, say infrastructure repair in the Middle East and supply diversification moves outside the region should result in a heavy book of post-war work.</div>

Baker Hughes, Halliburton and SLB, key drivers of oil and gas project cargoes, say infrastructure repair in the Middle East and supply diversification moves outside the region should result in a heavy book of post-war work.

Feature image

<div class="phx-topic">Despite supply chain disruptions and logistics cost increases caused by US-Israeli war against Iran and subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s three largest oilfield services providers are forecasting a windfall of oil and gas projects in the coming years. Should they materialize, the projects would result in a flood of orders for industrial project cargo and breakbulk steel shipments globally. Executives with Baker Hughes, Halliburton and SLB echoed one another’s market outlook that came in their latest quarterly earnings statements, all of which were released in late April. The three Houston-based companies, key drivers of oil and gas project cargoes, face significant exposure to market volatility in the Middle East. During his company’s first-quarter earnings call April 24, SLB CEO Olivier Le Peuch said the global oil and gas supply has lost over 500 million barrels of oil production because of the conflict. “In this environment, energy security remains at the forefront,” Le Peuch said. “We expect many countries to accelerate efforts to diversify supply, strengthen domestic resource development and rebuild strategic and commercial inventories that have been drawn down during the conflict.” War-related disruptions in the Middle East — including energy infrastructure shutdowns in Qatar and Iraq and operational interruptions throughout the region — took a toll on SLB in the first quarter. Net income fell 6% year on year to $752 million, and SLB said its earnings are expected to decrease by 6 to 8 cents per share in the second quarter compared to Q1. Le Peuch cited three primary drivers of global energy projects for 2027 and 2028: the replenishment of depleted oil and gas inventories, the diversification of supply, and countries investing in local oil and gas projects to support long-term energy independence. “The fragility of the global energy complex we are witnessing today demonstrates the strategic importance and long-term value of oil and gas,” he said. <h3>Halliburton looks to long game </h3>Halliburton expects the Iran conflict to drive long-term growth from countries seeking energy security through investments in their own oil and gas projects. The company’s net income for the first quarter shot up 126% over last year to $461 million, or 55 cents per share. But citing rising costs for supply chain logistics and fuel, Halliburton said the company expects a decline of 7 to 9 cents per share in the second quarter compared to the first. “The closure of the Strait (of Hormuz) has resulted in our use of alternative supply chain routes, which has increased logistics costs,” Halliburton COO Shannon Slocum said during the company’s April 21 first-quarter earnings call. “We have also seen price increases in purchased materials and supplies related to the conflict.” Halliburton CEO Jeffrey Miller said the conflict has eliminated the supply overhang for global oil and gas markets. With that, energy security has become a core priority fueling project investments and oilfield services activity. “The world is fundamentally tighter in oil and gas than it was 60 days ago,” Miller said on the earnings call. He said the market trend supports a stronger environment for countries to invest in localized oil and gas projects to ensure a reliable energy supply while reducing dependency on shipments from the Middle East. The recent geopolitical disruptions are also creating an urgency to diversify in countries without their own oil and gas resources. “Energy security is no longer a talking point,” Miller said. “That is going to drive activity, and I think that change is not temporal, but a solid few years.” <h3>Baker Hughes eyes broader project mix </h3>Baker Hughes expects the spike in global demand for oil and gas to accompany an already full slate of projects in multiple sectors. The war has significantly obstructed global liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets, with 20% of worldwide LNG capacity now offline, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said during the company’s April 24 first-quarter earnings call. “The recent infrastructure damage in the region and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have materially constrained the LNG market’s ability to respond to growing demand, likely to result in a supply shortfall this year,” he said. Diversification worked to Baker Hughes’ advantage in the first quarter, as earnings increased 14% to 58 cents per share while project orders grew 26% year over year to $8.2 billion. That included $4.9 billion in orders for industrial and energy technology projects such as LNG infrastructure, industrial decarbonization, and gas turbines. Power systems, including equipment to support data centers, continue to drive growth and accounted for $1.4 billion of those new orders. “Global power demand is in a multi-year growth cycle, and it’s important to remember we’re only in the early stages,” Simonelli said, citing projections that power demand will double by 2040, driven by factors such as data centers, digital infrastructure expansion, and industrial energy transition projects. Contact Autumn Cafiero Giusti at <a href="mailto:autumn@autumngiusti.com">autumn@autumngiusti.com</a>. </div>

Despite supply chain disruptions and logistics cost increases caused by US-Israeli war against Iran and subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s three largest oilfield services providers are forecasting a windfall of oil and gas projects in the coming years. Should they materialize, the projects would result in a flood of orders for industrial project cargo and breakbulk steel shipments globally. Executives with Baker Hughes, Halliburton and SLB echoed one another’s market outlook that came in their latest quarterly earnings statements, all of which were released in late April. The three Houston-based companies, key drivers of oil and gas project cargoes, face significant exposure to market volatility in the Middle East. During his company’s first-quarter earnings call April 24, SLB CEO Olivier Le Peuch said the global oil and gas supply has lost over 500 million barrels of oil production because of the conflict. “In this environment, energy security remains at the forefront,” Le Peuch said. “We expect many countries to accelerate efforts to diversify supply, strengthen domestic resource development and rebuild strategic and commercial inventories that have been drawn down during the conflict.” War-related disruptions in the Middle East — including energy infrastructure shutdowns in Qatar and Iraq and operational interruptions throughout the region — took a toll on SLB in the first quarter. Net income fell 6% year on year to $752 million, and SLB said its earnings are expected to decrease by 6 to 8 cents per share in the second quarter compared to Q1. Le Peuch cited three primary drivers of global energy projects for 2027 and 2028: the replenishment of depleted oil and gas inventories, the diversification of supply, and countries investing in local oil and gas projects to support long-term energy independence. “The fragility of the global energy complex we are witnessing today demonstrates the strategic importance and long-term value of oil and gas,” he said. Halliburton looks to long game Halliburton expects the Iran conflict to drive long-term growth from countries seeking energy security through investments in their own oil and gas projects. The company’s net income for the first quarter shot up 126% over last year to $461 million, or 55 cents per share. But citing rising costs for supply chain logistics and fuel, Halliburton said the company expects a decline of 7 to 9 cents per share in the second quarter compared to the first. “The closure of the Strait (of Hormuz) has resulted in our use of alternative supply chain routes, which has increased logistics costs,” Halliburton COO Shannon Slocum said during the company’s April 21 first-quarter earnings call. “We have also seen price increases in purchased materials and supplies related to the conflict.” Halliburton CEO Jeffrey Miller said the conflict has eliminated the supply overhang for global oil and gas markets. With that, energy security has become a core priority fueling project investments and oilfield services activity. “The world is fundamentally tighter in oil and gas than it was 60 days ago,” Miller said on the earnings call. He said the market trend supports a stronger environment for countries to invest in localized oil and gas projects to ensure a reliable energy supply while reducing dependency on shipments from the Middle East. The recent geopolitical disruptions are also creating an urgency to diversify in countries without their own oil and gas resources. “Energy security is no longer a talking point,” Miller said. “That is going to drive activity, and I think that change is not temporal, but a solid few years.” Baker Hughes eyes broader project mix Baker Hughes expects the spike in global demand for oil and gas to accompany an already full slate of projects in multiple sectors. The war has significantly obstructed global liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets, with 20% of worldwide LNG capacity now offline, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said during the company’s April 24 first-quarter earnings call. “The recent infrastructure damage in the region and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have materially constrained the LNG market’s ability to respond to growing demand, likely to result in a supply shortfall this year,” he said. Diversification worked to Baker Hughes’ advantage in the first quarter, as earnings increased 14% to 58 cents per share while project orders grew 26% year over year to $8.2 billion. That included $4.9 billion in orders for industrial and energy technology projects such as LNG infrastructure, industrial decarbonization, and gas turbines. Power systems, including equipment to support data centers, continue to drive growth and accounted for $1.4 billion of those new orders. “Global power demand is in a multi-year growth cycle, and it’s important to remember we’re only in the early stages,” Simonelli said, citing projections that power demand will double by 2040, driven by factors such as data centers, digital infrastructure expansion, and industrial energy transition projects. Contact Autumn Cafiero Giusti at autumn@autumngiusti.com .

Energy projects

Project cargo

Supply chain

Breakbulk News

Oilfield services majors bank on flood of oil, gas projects linked to Iran war

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">STG’s deal with a group of lenders who filed a lawsuit in New York last year clears the way for it to emerge from bankruptcy as the company has benefited from the rebound in intermodal demand.</div>

STG’s deal with a group of lenders who filed a lawsuit in New York last year clears the way for it to emerge from bankruptcy as the company has benefited from the rebound in intermodal demand.

<div class="phx-topic">STG Logistics has cleared the last major obstacle to emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy next month after reaching a settlement with a group of minority lenders that had challenged its restructuring. The settlement removes the last serious challenge to STG’s reorganization and leaves the company positioned to exit bankruptcy with customers, and freight volumes, largely intact. STG, which provides transloading, drayage, and domestic intermodal services, has met all the financial commitments made when it filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection in January. Those included maintaining more than $50 million in cash and staying within budget targets for revenue and expenses over the past three months. The company increased volume year over year in the first quarter in Southern California, based on data from RailState, suggesting customers did not pull back business during the restructuring. The company is the fifth-largest US domestic intermodal provider, with 15,000 containers and about $720 million in annual revenue, according to an analysis of bankruptcy filings. STG also benefited from a broader rebound in intermodal demand as March was the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/strong-march-volumes-give-intermodal-its-first-real-stress-test-in-years-6205604">third-strongest month on record for intermodal volume</a>, according to the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). The settlement ends a bitter fight that played out over the last two years. After expanding rapidly during the pandemic-related freight boom, including its 2022 purchase of XPO Logistics’ intermodal division, STG entered the freight downturn with too much debt. The company restructured its debt and shifted valuable assets backing older loans into a new entity beyond the reach of some existing lenders, according to Axos and Siemens, who filed a lawsuit in New York last year. In January, Axos and Siemens scored an important win when a New York court ruled that the claims against STG could move forward. Less than a week later, STG filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey, moving the fight into bankruptcy court. Axos and Siemens continued to object, but the settlement has now resolved that challenge. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

STG Logistics has cleared the last major obstacle to emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy next month after reaching a settlement with a group of minority lenders that had challenged its restructuring. The settlement removes the last serious challenge to STG’s reorganization and leaves the company positioned to exit bankruptcy with customers, and freight volumes, largely intact. STG, which provides transloading, drayage, and domestic intermodal services, has met all the financial commitments made when it filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection in January. Those included maintaining more than $50 million in cash and staying within budget targets for revenue and expenses over the past three months. The company increased volume year over year in the first quarter in Southern California, based on data from RailState, suggesting customers did not pull back business during the restructuring. The company is the fifth-largest US domestic intermodal provider, with 15,000 containers and about $720 million in annual revenue, according to an analysis of bankruptcy filings. STG also benefited from a broader rebound in intermodal demand as March was the third-strongest month on record for intermodal volume , according to the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). The settlement ends a bitter fight that played out over the last two years. After expanding rapidly during the pandemic-related freight boom, including its 2022 purchase of XPO Logistics’ intermodal division, STG entered the freight downturn with too much debt. The company restructured its debt and shifted valuable assets backing older loans into a new entity beyond the reach of some existing lenders, according to Axos and Siemens, who filed a lawsuit in New York last year. In January, Axos and Siemens scored an important win when a New York court ruled that the claims against STG could move forward. Less than a week later, STG filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey, moving the fight into bankruptcy court. Axos and Siemens continued to object, but the settlement has now resolved that challenge. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

Port News

Trucking News

Rail News

Drayage

Truckload

Intermodal providers

Surface

STG clears final obstacle to exit bankruptcy as lender dispute ends

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The truckload provider slashed its logistics division’s third-party carrier pool by 30% in the first quarter amid growing attention to truck safety nationwide and a federal crackdown on truck driver licensing. </div>

The truckload provider slashed its logistics division’s third-party carrier pool by 30% in the first quarter amid growing attention to truck safety nationwide and a federal crackdown on truck driver licensing.

<div class="phx-topic">Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings is making deep cuts in its brokerage carrier base, targeting businesses that company officials say may be unsafe. “We have cut down the number of carriers that we work with dramatically,” Adam Miller, CEO of the truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) provider, told Wall Street analysts during the company’s first-quarter earnings call last week. “Just since the beginning of this year, we’re down 30% and we had made a large cut even earlier last year,” Miller said. The cuts at Knight-Swift come amid growing attention to truck safety nationwide, allegations of widespread illegal trucking and <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/usdot-releases-interim-final-rule-on-non-domiciled-cdl-holders-6169023">a federal crackdown on truck driver licensing</a>. “We felt it was prudent for us to take the steps to eliminate capacity that we didn’t feel comfortable with,” Miller said. “And do I think others will do that? I think some will.” Knight-Swift, which reported $7.5 billion in total revenue last year, had $127.6 million in logistics revenue, largely brokerage-based business, in the first quarter. That revenue was down 9.9% from a year earlier, driven by an 18.9% decline in load counts. <h3>Growing pressure to tighten standards </h3>Brokerages and carriers such as Knight-Swift that operate brokerages as part of a transportation portfolio are under growing pressure to tighten standards used to vet carriers. The US Supreme Court is currently considering a case that could determine what level of <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/02/court-to-consider-whether-freight-brokers-can-be-held-liable-for-negligent-hiring/">legal liability</a> brokerages bear when contracting with asset-based trucking firms. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-dangerous-trucking-schemes-putting-americans-at-risk-60-minutes-transcript/">Recent media coverage</a> about illegal trucking and unsafe carriers has heightened public attention on how brokers vet the carriers they select to haul freight. “We have taken a great number of steps to really ensure that we have high-quality, safe carriers,” Miller said during the conference call. “We vet how long you've been in business. We're looking at evidence that you have logs that we could see where your tractors are.” A real challenge for brokers and shippers, he said, is identifying and monitoring who is driving a brokered truck. “The broker has no idea, in most cases,” said Miller. “We are taking steps to ensure we have a copy of the license, [that] we know who’s in the truck, especially if they’re going to operate and leverage one of our trailers,” he added. In doing so, Knight-Swift is going well beyond basic legal requirements that a freight broker select trucking firms with active operating authority and motor carrier insurance. That’s a decision more brokers and carriers are going to face, said Miller, as a regulatory crackdown on truck driver licensing eliminates more capacity. “Some logistics companies may not have a choice because the capacity they’re leveraging today won’t exist,” he said. “We’re anticipating that our customers are going to start being more concerned about this as this becomes more of a relevant issue,” Miller said. “We’re already seeing that.” Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings is making deep cuts in its brokerage carrier base, targeting businesses that company officials say may be unsafe. “We have cut down the number of carriers that we work with dramatically,” Adam Miller, CEO of the truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) provider, told Wall Street analysts during the company’s first-quarter earnings call last week. “Just since the beginning of this year, we’re down 30% and we had made a large cut even earlier last year,” Miller said. The cuts at Knight-Swift come amid growing attention to truck safety nationwide, allegations of widespread illegal trucking and a federal crackdown on truck driver licensing . “We felt it was prudent for us to take the steps to eliminate capacity that we didn’t feel comfortable with,” Miller said. “And do I think others will do that? I think some will.” Knight-Swift, which reported $7.5 billion in total revenue last year, had $127.6 million in logistics revenue, largely brokerage-based business, in the first quarter. That revenue was down 9.9% from a year earlier, driven by an 18.9% decline in load counts. Growing pressure to tighten standards Brokerages and carriers such as Knight-Swift that operate brokerages as part of a transportation portfolio are under growing pressure to tighten standards used to vet carriers. The US Supreme Court is currently considering a case that could determine what level of legal liability brokerages bear when contracting with asset-based trucking firms. Recent media coverage about illegal trucking and unsafe carriers has heightened public attention on how brokers vet the carriers they select to haul freight. “We have taken a great number of steps to really ensure that we have high-quality, safe carriers,” Miller said during the conference call. “We vet how long you've been in business. We're looking at evidence that you have logs that we could see where your tractors are.” A real challenge for brokers and shippers, he said, is identifying and monitoring who is driving a brokered truck. “The broker has no idea, in most cases,” said Miller. “We are taking steps to ensure we have a copy of the license, [that] we know who’s in the truck, especially if they’re going to operate and leverage one of our trailers,” he added. In doing so, Knight-Swift is going well beyond basic legal requirements that a freight broker select trucking firms with active operating authority and motor carrier insurance. That’s a decision more brokers and carriers are going to face, said Miller, as a regulatory crackdown on truck driver licensing eliminates more capacity. “Some logistics companies may not have a choice because the capacity they’re leveraging today won’t exist,” he said. “We’re anticipating that our customers are going to start being more concerned about this as this becomes more of a relevant issue,” Miller said. “We’re already seeing that.” Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Truck brokers

Knight-Swift making safety-related cuts to brokerage fleet

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The near-term view for the industry is heavily dependent on how quickly the war in the Middle East is resolved, experts said at the Journal of Commerce’s Breakbulk and Project Cargo Conference 2026.</div>

The near-term view for the industry is heavily dependent on how quickly the war in the Middle East is resolved, experts said at the Journal of Commerce’s Breakbulk and Project Cargo Conference 2026.

<div class="phx-topic">The mix of industrial sectors that drive project cargo and breakbulk demand could well shift toward electrification and renewable energy in the coming years, but the industry is still driven by the oil and gas sectors despite fresh headwinds caused by the war in the Middle East. That sentiment, laid out in detail at the Journal of Commerce’s Breakbulk and Project Cargo Conference 2026 in New Orleans last week, cuts against the notion that service providers are totally consumed with data center construction. Tim Killen, head of growth at forwarder Fracht, said oil and gas still represents 25% of the planned capital expenditure investment for new projects globally over the next decade, compared with 8% to 10% for data centers, the sixth-highest project category. “We’ve had a lot of conversations over the last two days in terms of power generation and data centers,” Killen said at the conference. “But let’s recognize that both for North America and globally, oil and gas is critical. So we’re still focusing on that.” Among the sectors sandwiched between oil and gas and data centers that are driving new project capex are transformers, which Killen said has seen 300% growth in the last five years; infrastructure, such as bridges and water projects; and renewable energy, which accounts for 15% of capex for new projects. Cyril Varghese, global logistics director at Fluor, said the biggest issue clouding any outlook by project shippers, forwarders or carriers right now is not knowing how long the war in the Middle East will last. “What are the trickle effects going to be?” he said at Breakbulk26. “What is the trade reconfiguration going to look like? How much is protectionism and all countries trying to have a trade surplus or a balanced trade book impact your cargo movements across the globe?” Varghese said he is focused on what a prolonged conflict does to global GDP growth. “When you look at the [International Monetary Fund’s] World Economic Outlook, the recalibrated baseline for global growth is in the range of 3.1% for ’26 and 3.2% for ’27,” he said. “Now that’s in a baseline scenario, assuming that the conflict ends soon. A severe scenario takes the growth global growth rate to 2.5% and 2.2%.” Varghese’s contention is that carriers should be careful to not over-order breakbulk and multipurpose vessels with that uncertainty hanging over the industry, especially because new vessels entering the fleet tend to be able to carry more cargo than ones exiting the fleet. “If the overall [economic] growth slows down, and if there is more protectionism, which is coming, and if the industry just becomes sluggish, I think we would be prudent in terms of not going into an expansion spree,” he said. <h3>‘Flexibility crisis’ </h3>A more near-term issue is whether disruption to the supply of bunker fuel at key ports, especially in Asia, extends transit times and increases costs for projects. “On paper everything looks fine,” Melanie Drehkopf, chief commercial officer at dship Carriers, told the conference when asked about bunker availability. “In practice it’s getting tighter. There are longer lead times and you cannot just order bunker as you did before. The pricing validity window is shrinking, so if you have an offer, you better jump on it. Our flexibility is getting less and less, which means switching cargoes from one ship to another is harder.” Drehkopf said the industry doesn’t have a supply crisis yet, “but we have a flexibility crisis, especially in heavy-lift, where you don’t have regular ports.” Looking further out, she said if the war persists for another month and continues to curtail fuel supply through the Strait of Hormuz, lead times will get longer. “It’s all a big question mark,” Drehkopf said. “I don’t think it’s going to get better. I don’t think it will idle capacity, but maybe you need to wait two, three, or four days to get the bunkers you need. There are already bottlenecks of some commodities due to a mismatch of vessels and specific commodities.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The mix of industrial sectors that drive project cargo and breakbulk demand could well shift toward electrification and renewable energy in the coming years, but the industry is still driven by the oil and gas sectors despite fresh headwinds caused by the war in the Middle East. That sentiment, laid out in detail at the Journal of Commerce’s Breakbulk and Project Cargo Conference 2026 in New Orleans last week, cuts against the notion that service providers are totally consumed with data center construction. Tim Killen, head of growth at forwarder Fracht, said oil and gas still represents 25% of the planned capital expenditure investment for new projects globally over the next decade, compared with 8% to 10% for data centers, the sixth-highest project category. “We’ve had a lot of conversations over the last two days in terms of power generation and data centers,” Killen said at the conference. “But let’s recognize that both for North America and globally, oil and gas is critical. So we’re still focusing on that.” Among the sectors sandwiched between oil and gas and data centers that are driving new project capex are transformers, which Killen said has seen 300% growth in the last five years; infrastructure, such as bridges and water projects; and renewable energy, which accounts for 15% of capex for new projects. Cyril Varghese, global logistics director at Fluor, said the biggest issue clouding any outlook by project shippers, forwarders or carriers right now is not knowing how long the war in the Middle East will last. “What are the trickle effects going to be?” he said at Breakbulk26. “What is the trade reconfiguration going to look like? How much is protectionism and all countries trying to have a trade surplus or a balanced trade book impact your cargo movements across the globe?” Varghese said he is focused on what a prolonged conflict does to global GDP growth. “When you look at the [International Monetary Fund’s] World Economic Outlook, the recalibrated baseline for global growth is in the range of 3.1% for ’26 and 3.2% for ’27,” he said. “Now that’s in a baseline scenario, assuming that the conflict ends soon. A severe scenario takes the growth global growth rate to 2.5% and 2.2%.” Varghese’s contention is that carriers should be careful to not over-order breakbulk and multipurpose vessels with that uncertainty hanging over the industry, especially because new vessels entering the fleet tend to be able to carry more cargo than ones exiting the fleet. “If the overall [economic] growth slows down, and if there is more protectionism, which is coming, and if the industry just becomes sluggish, I think we would be prudent in terms of not going into an expansion spree,” he said. ‘Flexibility crisis’ A more near-term issue is whether disruption to the supply of bunker fuel at key ports, especially in Asia, extends transit times and increases costs for projects. “On paper everything looks fine,” Melanie Drehkopf, chief commercial officer at dship Carriers, told the conference when asked about bunker availability. “In practice it’s getting tighter. There are longer lead times and you cannot just order bunker as you did before. The pricing validity window is shrinking, so if you have an offer, you better jump on it. Our flexibility is getting less and less, which means switching cargoes from one ship to another is harder.” Drehkopf said the industry doesn’t have a supply crisis yet, “but we have a flexibility crisis, especially in heavy-lift, where you don’t have regular ports.” Looking further out, she said if the war persists for another month and continues to curtail fuel supply through the Strait of Hormuz, lead times will get longer. “It’s all a big question mark,” Drehkopf said. “I don’t think it’s going to get better. I don’t think it will idle capacity, but maybe you need to wait two, three, or four days to get the bunkers you need. There are already bottlenecks of some commodities due to a mismatch of vessels and specific commodities.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Breakbulk carriers

Oil supply worries, economic uncertainty cloud outlook for breakbulk sector

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A penalty only works when it reaches the decision-maker with enough force to change the decision; the one coming into effect at the port on May 1 does not, writes Paul Tonsager.</div>

A penalty only works when it reaches the decision-maker with enough force to change the decision; the one coming into effect at the port on May 1 does not, writes Paul Tonsager.

<div class="phx-topic">The Port of New York and New Jersey’s revised empty container fee takes effect May 1. The question worth asking is not how much to charge — it is who is being charged, and whether the charge ever reaches the party making the decision. On April 10, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/ny-nj-updating-port-tariff-to-combat-rising-backlog-of-empty-boxes-6208652">a three-mile line of trucks was sent home from Port Newark Depot</a> because the 12-acre off-dock facility had run out of room for Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd empties. APM Terminals contracted the depot in February 2025 to handle Gemini Cooperation empties and preserve on-terminal space for loaded moves. Drivers burned hours-of-service in a queue that backed onto public roads. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/6210306_0.1.jpg"></img></div>The Port Authority’s response is a sharper version of the tool it has used since 2022. The revised tariff shortens the evaluation window from 12 months to six, extends scope to nearby depots, and retains the $100-per-container fee. The fee cannot solve the problem it is aimed at because the party paying it has already priced it in. Empty repositioning is a structural cost for ocean carriers, absorbed into rate structures and recovered in freight pricing. Spread across a 10,000-TEU vessel call, $100 per excess empty is a rounding error against voyage revenue. The carrier faces no vessel schedule or berth priority consequence beyond the invoice itself. The fee is a line item, not a lever. This is not the Port Authority’s first attempt. The 2011 Cargo Facility Charge, the only instrument of its kind at any US port, required eight years of carrier pressure and a 2019 restructuring that exempted empties. The Container Imbalance Fee has been revised multiple times since its 2022 introduction. Meanwhile, the operational cost lands downstream. Drayage operators absorb four- and five-hour queue times. Beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) pay detention on containers their truckers could not return because the return location was full. The solution to overflow has been more overflow capacity, which will fill on the same logic. The Port Authority has demonstrated a mechanism that does change behavior. The Clean Trucks Program phased out pre-1994 engine trucks from marine terminal access in January 2011 and restricted pre-2007 engines by January 2017. Trucks that did not meet the threshold were not fined; they were excluded. The drayage fleet turned over because the alternative to compliance was loss of terminal access, not a line item on a monthly invoice. The mechanism worked because it was tied to something the affected party valued and could not substitute away from. The equivalent instrument for ocean carriers would need to operate differently. A carrier cannot be excluded from the port the way a non-compliant truck can. What it can be held to is continuous, verifiable accountability for the asset it owns and directs. A chain of custody for empty containers would capture every handoff — carrier to terminal, terminal to drayage, drayage to BCO, drayage to return location — in a standardized event record held by a neutral registry. Each record would identify the custody party physically holding the box and the directing party issuing the disposition instruction. For empties, the directing party is almost always the ocean carrier. When that party’s instruction is unexecutable because the return location is full or the appointment unavailable, an accountability clock would run against the directing party until a usable instruction is issued. The mechanism places continuous economic consequence on the party making the decision. <h3>Revised tariff is ‘reasonable,’ but in the ‘wrong forum’ </h3>North American rail has operated a functionally equivalent system for over a century through car hire rules codified in the Association of American Railroads’ Circular OT-10 and settled through Railinc’s neutral clearinghouse, producing an asset management discipline that operates against a verifiable event record rather than through periodic fee revision. Most of the technical infrastructure for a maritime version already exists. Major ocean carriers including Hapag-Lloyd, Mediterranean Shipping Co., and Ocean Network Express (ONE) have deployed or are deploying Internet of Things (IoT) container tracking at scale. Terminal operating systems capture gate events. UN/CEFACT and the Digital Container Shipping Association have published the data standards. What is missing is the neutral registry, the rulemaking that would require detention billing to be supported by chain-of-custody data, and the settlement layer. The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has the authority to build all three under OSRA-22 and existing federal regulations on detention and demurrage invoices. None requires new legislation. The May 1 tariff revision is a reasonable administrative action by the Port Authority. It is also the wrong forum for the substantive fix. The port can tie terminal access to utilization performance the way it once tied it to emissions compliance. The FMC can build the chain-of-custody framework that puts the accountability clock on the carrier. A penalty only works when it reaches the decision-maker with enough force to change the decision. The current one does not. The accountability architecture that would make the next one unnecessary has not yet been built. Paul Tonsager is founder and principal of IMS Advisory and writes the Signals &amp; Switches newsletter on freight strategy at aet1998.substack.com. Contact him at <a href="mailto:paul.tonsager@multimodalsolutions.io">paul.tonsager@multimodalsolutions.io</a>.</div>

The Port of New York and New Jersey’s revised empty container fee takes effect May 1. The question worth asking is not how much to charge — it is who is being charged, and whether the charge ever reaches the party making the decision. On April 10, a three-mile line of trucks was sent home from Port Newark Depot because the 12-acre off-dock facility had run out of room for Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd empties. APM Terminals contracted the depot in February 2025 to handle Gemini Cooperation empties and preserve on-terminal space for loaded moves. Drivers burned hours-of-service in a queue that backed onto public roads. The Port Authority’s response is a sharper version of the tool it has used since 2022. The revised tariff shortens the evaluation window from 12 months to six, extends scope to nearby depots, and retains the $100-per-container fee. The fee cannot solve the problem it is aimed at because the party paying it has already priced it in. Empty repositioning is a structural cost for ocean carriers, absorbed into rate structures and recovered in freight pricing. Spread across a 10,000-TEU vessel call, $100 per excess empty is a rounding error against voyage revenue. The carrier faces no vessel schedule or berth priority consequence beyond the invoice itself. The fee is a line item, not a lever. This is not the Port Authority’s first attempt. The 2011 Cargo Facility Charge, the only instrument of its kind at any US port, required eight years of carrier pressure and a 2019 restructuring that exempted empties. The Container Imbalance Fee has been revised multiple times since its 2022 introduction. Meanwhile, the operational cost lands downstream. Drayage operators absorb four- and five-hour queue times. Beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) pay detention on containers their truckers could not return because the return location was full. The solution to overflow has been more overflow capacity, which will fill on the same logic. The Port Authority has demonstrated a mechanism that does change behavior. The Clean Trucks Program phased out pre-1994 engine trucks from marine terminal access in January 2011 and restricted pre-2007 engines by January 2017. Trucks that did not meet the threshold were not fined; they were excluded. The drayage fleet turned over because the alternative to compliance was loss of terminal access, not a line item on a monthly invoice. The mechanism worked because it was tied to something the affected party valued and could not substitute away from. The equivalent instrument for ocean carriers would need to operate differently. A carrier cannot be excluded from the port the way a non-compliant truck can. What it can be held to is continuous, verifiable accountability for the asset it owns and directs. A chain of custody for empty containers would capture every handoff — carrier to terminal, terminal to drayage, drayage to BCO, drayage to return location — in a standardized event record held by a neutral registry. Each record would identify the custody party physically holding the box and the directing party issuing the disposition instruction. For empties, the directing party is almost always the ocean carrier. When that party’s instruction is unexecutable because the return location is full or the appointment unavailable, an accountability clock would run against the directing party until a usable instruction is issued. The mechanism places continuous economic consequence on the party making the decision. Revised tariff is ‘reasonable,’ but in the ‘wrong forum’ North American rail has operated a functionally equivalent system for over a century through car hire rules codified in the Association of American Railroads’ Circular OT-10 and settled through Railinc’s neutral clearinghouse, producing an asset management discipline that operates against a verifiable event record rather than through periodic fee revision. Most of the technical infrastructure for a maritime version already exists. Major ocean carriers including Hapag-Lloyd, Mediterranean Shipping Co., and Ocean Network Express (ONE) have deployed or are deploying Internet of Things (IoT) container tracking at scale. Terminal operating systems capture gate events. UN/CEFACT and the Digital Container Shipping Association have published the data standards. What is missing is the neutral registry, the rulemaking that would require detention billing to be supported by chain-of-custody data, and the settlement layer. The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has the authority to build all three under OSRA-22 and existing federal regulations on detention and demurrage invoices. None requires new legislation. The May 1 tariff revision is a reasonable administrative action by the Port Authority. It is also the wrong forum for the substantive fix. The port can tie terminal access to utilization performance the way it once tied it to emissions compliance. The FMC can build the chain-of-custody framework that puts the accountability clock on the carrier. A penalty only works when it reaches the decision-maker with enough force to change the decision. The current one does not. The accountability architecture that would make the next one unnecessary has not yet been built. Paul Tonsager is founder and principal of IMS Advisory and writes the Signals & Switches newsletter on freight strategy at aet1998.substack.com. Contact him at paul.tonsager@multimodalsolutions.io .

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