Seeking Solutions to Congestion Chaos

By Simon West

From Issue 2, 2025 of Breakbulk Magazine.

Global supply chain congestion shows no signs of easing, with bottlenecks, delays and increased costs continuing to create headaches for breakbulk and project cargo.

While instant relief remains out of reach, project professionals are pointing to longer-term strategies for tackling the chaos, such as establishing alternate trade routes, investing in port infrastructure and capitalizing on technology.

“The challenges are unprecedented,” said Akshay Anand, group general manager and board member at Saudi-headquartered Al Barrak Group. Speaking during a panel session at Breakbulk Middle East, the executive said the Red Sea crisis in particular was more than just a geopolitical issue; it was one that carried “immense ramifications” for world trade, economies and the entire logistics cycle. “The challenge is very real, and we live it every day. I’m sure my colleagues live it every day as well.”

Expanding on the challenges, Ben Collins, global project cargo manager at Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), said the increasing size of vessels built to carry more cargo was compounding congestion by putting additional strain on ports already struggling to keep up.

“The number of vessels entering the conventional market isn’t going up dramatically, but when they’re retiring the older ones, the newer ones coming in are larger,” said Collins, also speaking on the panel in Dubai. “Port calls are loading and discharging more cargo. And a lot of terminals around the world haven’t kept up with the pace of investment by the ship owners. Ships that used to operate on the main trade lanes are now used as feeders at best, compared to 10 years ago. So I think this is the big fundamental change – the scale.

“Trade is going to continue to grow, so we have to get more investment in the land side and in the terminals, because ship owners – certainly the one I represent here today – are not going to slow down; they’re going to keep going.”

No Quick Fix

The panel, moderated by Martyn Cowie, managing partner at Dubai-headquartered Tyde Digital, agreed that while there was no easy answer for dealing with congestion, solutions such as new trade routes offered hope to breakbulk movers.

Anand pointed to China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor as examples of potential new passages that would ease the strain on existing lanes, but warned that these were still “theoretical” solutions.

“Hopefully, the powers-to-be are looking into this and working toward a solution,” he said. “A lot of them are credible – some of them will see the light of day, maybe not in our lifetime, but in the next 40 or 50 years. And some of them might not. But the problem as it remains is real. And I think the challenge for all of us is going to be to ensure that world trade continues.”

Mario Hess, global head of customer solutions for deugro Group, said setting up alternate lanes could lead to the “Waze effect”, a reference to the navigation app that redirects drivers away from traffic, only for the new routes to become congested themselves.

“So actually we’re just shifting congestion from one trade lane to the other and creating more without really solving or addressing the underlying problem,” Hess said.

Returning to port infrastructure, Collins said boosting barge and rail connections to keep cargo moving efficiently was an urgent priority. “For breakbulk cargo it’s obviously very different because each of the pieces are so individual, but on the mass scale for the boxes, the inland connections and the hinterlands to get off the terminals – I think will make a huge difference.”

Anand urged shipping lines, forwarders, port operators and government authorities to improve collaboration, while Preston Coelho, director for international sales and ship agency at terminals operator Gulftainer, said the industry needed to think outside the box when it came to their options. He pointed to Jebel Ali in the UAE, one of the region’s “biggest bottlenecks”, and the reluctance of companies to use other, less congested facilities.

Gulftainer manages a number of ports in the Middle East including Khorfakkan, a “two-tier” container port in the UAE’s Sharjah state with the capacity to handle breakbulk and project cargo.

“You cannot use just one terminal and choke it up. You have to spread it out,” the executive said. “And that hasn’t happened in this region (the Middle East). So despite having alternatives, they have not used them. And now when it comes to a time where they’re needed, everyone’s struggling to maintain their supply chains.”

Capitalizing on Technology

The panel also highlighted technology’s role in navigating supply chain congestion, with Collins emphasizing that while it won’t fix the problem, enhancing information flow and data quality was crucial for dealing with disruption.

“If people want to manage the congestion as best as they can, then the reality of it is the information flow needs to be faster, quicker and more accurate,” Collins said, pointing to MSC’s recently launched iReefer container monitoring solution for reefer cargo. The technology allows customers to track and monitor their temperature-controlled shipments in real time, from anywhere in the world.

“I can see that expanding more and more into the specialized cargo as well,” Collins said. “Look, congestion is going to happen. The question is, how do we as an industry give the clients better visibility for people that have to make the decisions, factoring in these problems as they arise? I think this is where the shipping industry in particular as a whole still has a long way to develop to give that.”

He added: “I can buy a book from Amazon for three dollars and see every minute of the day where it is. Sometimes on carriers, it’s millions of dollars and you’re waiting for a website to be updated – it sometimes doesn’t feel the best solution.”

Continuing on the topic of technology, Anand highlighted how AI has become a valuable tool for the industry to collect and process data – meeting the growing demands of clients.

“Customers are very unforgiving these days,” Anand said. “They’re not going to really cut you any slack. They will want to know where the cargo is at every point in time. If you’re a forwarder or a shipping line, they will benchmark you against ten different shipping lines and ten different forwarders or logistics providers.

“I think AI is probably one of the ways and the main way to collect that data,” he added.

According to Hess, deugro is deploying AI models to provide predictive analytics into congestion or congestion that is likely to occur. The forwarder recently launched a new plug-in that helps it interpret complex data conveyed from carrier partners and terminals and turning it into clear, actionable insights.

While AI and technology can be deployed to ease congestion chaos, the panel agreed that strong human relationships would ultimately help businesses thrive in turbulent times.

“It sounds old-fashioned, but it does go back to relationships,” Collins said. “IT, data, programming, AI – it’s all great as a tool to support what you need to do but you need to be close to your shippers, your project and your manufacturing. Problems happen; delays happen – it’s how you minimize the impact, which is the skill set that exists on this panel. We’re always searching for the answers.”

We caught up with Anand and Collins post-session for more insight and behind-the-scenes perspectives: