2025 Breakbulk and Project Cargo Conference Breakbulk & Project Cargo
Project delays due to US tariffs could result in a flood of cargo activity in the second half. Tracie Morris Schaefer
Felix Schoeller, director at project carrier AAL Shipping, said service providers saw“ quite a rapid shift” in the types of cargo their customers were moving after the US imposed tariffs of 145 % on goods made in China.
“ The pipeline was quite positive for oil and gas and renewables— all three had a positive outlook,” he told Breakbulk25.“ Now, with tariffs, it’ s not easy to change sourcing quickly away from China, and renewables are a bit out of favor.”
Still, Schoeller said he thinks 2026 and 2027 will see robust demand and the priority will be for shippers to
‘ Tomorrow is not today’
Capacity-limited MPV operators reconsidering fleet expansion
By Autumn Cafiero Giusti
Pieter Flohil, managing director with Dutch MPV / HL operator Spliethoff, said the company has been looking to expand its fleet but has put those plans on pause amid concerns over US tariff policy and proposed ship fees.
“ At the moment, we really want to see which way the world is going.”
Ongoing engagement with shippers, flexibility with charter contracts and day-to-day agility will be key to the fleet strategies of breakbulk and project cargo carriers as they grapple with capacity limitations and tariff uncertainty, multipurpose vessel / heavy-lift( MPV / HL) operators told the Journal of Commerce’ s Breakbulk and Project Cargo Conference.
“ The best advice to our clients would be that tomorrow is not today,” said Anders Hyrup, president of the JSI Alliance, a cooperative of super-heavy carriers Jumbo, SAL and Intermarine.
MPV / HL operators are struggling to replace capacity despite a surge of new ship orders in the last quarter of 2024. And now the sector is staring down hefty fees the US Trade Representative( USTR) plans to impose on Chinese-built vessels that call the US. Only eight MPV / HL ships are not Chinese-owned.
The unknowns surrounding fees are forcing owners to take a wait-and-see approach to ordering new vessels.
“ We’ re in a very capital-intensive business, and we as a group are very conservative in terms of our risk,” Flohil said.“ And at the moment, we really want to see which way the world is going.”
Tim Kopfensteiner, president of MPV / HL operator BBC Chartering USA, said the fee exemptions, which cover the company’ s vessels, have given him cautious optimism.
“ To do a complete 180 on our strategy for something that could be there for 30 days, four years, eight years— it’ s a very, very difficult decision to make,” he said.
In terms of chartering, some vessel owners are taking steps to get ahead of US ship fees by including clauses in contracts that address the charges. Operators on the panel said there has been some pushback, but otherwise most shippers have been receptive to the clauses in anticipation of fees.
“ I think there was some understanding from the shippers’ side because there’ s not much you can do about it,” said Melanie Drehkopf, chief commercial officer for Hamburg-based MPV / HL operator dship Carriers.
12 Journal of Commerce | June 2025 www. joc. com