Severely limited warehousing capacity at North American ports is adding to the challenges facing breakbulk shippers in 2022, attendees at JOC’s Breakbulk and Project Cargo conference were told.

"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.

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

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

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

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.

MPV/HL carriers and breakbulk ports benefited last year from record US wind cargoes as expiring tax credits, improved technology, and increasing demand accelerated development

Indices forecast rising rates for MPPs through the end of the year as breakbulk demand improves and container shippers searching for alternatives underpin a strengthening market.

Breakbulk shipper John Deere is signaling mild optimism for the balance of the year even as construction and agriculture machinery sales falter due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With information on ISPM 15 violations still difficult to come by, shippers are investigating and educating wood packaging materials (WPM) makers, increasing requirements for heat treatments, and turning to non-WPM materials for dunnage.

A busy renewable energy sector and stable oil and gas markets have collided with persistent overcapacity in the multipurpose/heavy-lift (MPV/HL) sector, causing rate growth to sputter and stall.