Tackling Europe’s Breakbulk Bottleneck

By Luke King

A fragmented permitting process, outdated roads, and a lack of investment in logistics infrastructure are creating serious barriers for the effective movement of project cargo in Europe. That was the consensus among speakers at the “Modernizing Cargo Infrastructure: Overcoming Bottlenecks” session at Breakbulk Europe 2025.

The discussion, moderated by Dennis Devlin, managing director – USA at DT Project America, brought together representatives from logistics, port operations, EPCs and industry associations to explore practical solutions for Europe’s often creaking transport network.

Speakers included Andy Tite, global commercial head at DHL Industrial Projects; Edi Cioran, CEO of DP World Antwerp; Łukasz Chwalczuk, president of the Polish Heavy Transport Employers Association and ESTA Europe board member; Mauro Varela Armas, logistics proposals manager at Técnicas Reunidas; and Parisa Kaveh, managing director at Nostrac Shipping.

Asked to identify the biggest challenge on the continent, panelists didn’t hesitate. “Bureaucracy,” said Chwalczuk. “When it comes to heavy-lift, there is no union in Europe.”

Kaveh agreed. “We have a lack of harmonized digital systems for permits within European countries, specifically for project cargo. You have to go to many governments, and that creates a very long process.”

From the shipper’s perspective, Varela Armas said the complexity leads to costly risks: “We face a lot of uncertainty. When we start executing, we see a huge amount of unforeseen problems. The issue is political – the amount of money that gets lost because there’s no communication between countries. They all work different ways.”

He added: “We need a single point in the European community that takes care of everything seamlessly – not country by country. We do this for other things in Europe, but we don’t do it for heavy-lift.”

For Cioran, the problem is rooted in historic priorities. “We are dealing with aging infrastructure. Twenty or thirty years ago, ports were rushing to develop container capacity. As a result, breakbulk was less represented in European ports.”

Developing new capacity for heavy cargo takes years, he warned. “If you want to build a new berth, you’re lucky if it takes five years – maybe ten, maybe more. With the drive for the energy sector, especially renewables, our customers are asking for more breakbulk capacity and availability. This is not something you can build overnight.”

Kaveh highlighted persistent problems with quay strength, outdated bridges, and labor shortages. “We need special corridors for heavy weight logistics. In the UK, we also have a lack of skilled workers – there’s a need for training schemes. Young people don’t see shipping as a career.”

Brexit, she noted, added another layer of confusion for operations related to the UK. “There were a lot of extra processes. It’s getting a bit easier now we understand the changes a little, but the challenges are similar to the rest of Europe – rural operations, weak bridges, very limited ports that can handle heavy-lift. We need new terminals.”

There may be some light at the end of the tunnel, however. “For the last 10 or 20 years, we have been trying to address this,” said Chwalczuk. “And it’s finally happening. The European Commission is working on a directive focusing on cooperation between member states and digitalization. The goal is harmonization – a one-stop shop for permitting.”

Varela Armas welcomed the progress but said the private sector must also step up. “We have to work together. If I’m the EPC, and if I cannot execute the project because there’s no infrastructure – say in part of northern England where there is no port – it doesn’t work. One single organism needs to take care of ports, roads, permits – everything, and the requirements should be mandatory across Europe.”

Tite underlined the importance of early engagement and information-sharing. “No provider can be everything for everybody,” he said. “We need to speak to shippers to understand their pipelines way in advance. From there, we need to engage early, but also be cognizant of the procurement process.”

He added: “Our industry is fantastic through the variation of what we do – but that’s also our Achilles’ heel. You can’t guarantee that what you need to deliver today is a consistent investment for the future, so governments are not always willing to make the infrastructure upgrades required. Our work is sporadic.”

Cioran stressed that ports can’t solve these problems in isolation. “There’s a lot of expectation on ports – but we’re only one player. Container terminals can do more breakbulk, but that relies on training and the new generation coming through. In the long term, the answer is investment – through public-private partnerships and a long-term view of customer demand.”

Photo (L-R): Łukasz Chwalczuk, Dennis Devlin, Andy Tite, Edi Cioran, Mauro Varela Armas, Parisa Kaveh. Credit: Richard Theemling Photography