From Disruption to Direction

The Executive Summit at Breakbulk Middle East is an invitation-only gathering of senior leaders from across project cargo, commercial shipping and energy, created to examine the strategic forces reshaping the market. Designed as a focused, high-level working session, the 2026 version brought together carriers, forwarders, EPCs and port operators to explore how businesses are moving from disruption to direction. The discussion was moderated by Vanessa Welch, managing director of V3 Consulting, a senior strategist with extensive experience across shipping, supply chain and complex operating environments, who shares her reflections below.

During this year’s Breakbulk Middle East Executive Summit, one message landed early and stayed with the room: disruption is no longer an external shock to be managed: It is the operating environment.

The closed-door summit, themed From Disruption to Direction, was designed to move beyond headlines and into the mechanics of how shipping, logistics and project cargo businesses are actually adjusting. The session combined a scene-setting market presentation with closed-door working discussions, bringing together operators, carriers, forwarders and infrastructure players who are dealing with these pressures daily.

The summit opened with a data-driven presentation on fleet development, demand outlook and utilization across general cargo and project-capable vessels. The key takeaway was that growth is uneven, harder to forecast and increasingly shaped by geopolitics, regulation and project timing rather than traditional economic cycles.

One of the most salient points was the growing misalignment between demand and fleet capability. On paper, capacity exists. In practice, availability is constrained by specification, age profile, location and readiness. Utilization pressure is being driven less by overall fleet size and more by whether the right ships are available for increasingly specialized cargo requirements.

The presentation also highlighted a widening divergence between general cargo and project cargo dynamics. While general cargo capacity continues to grow faster than demand in some segments, project cargo demand is outpacing the supply of suitable vessels. This is particularly true for complex or oversized cargoes tied to energy, infrastructure and industrial projects.

Pricing In Risk

This framing set the tone for the discussion that followed. When the room broke into working groups, the conversation moved quickly from theory to practice. Trade barriers and tariffs were discussed as forces that reshape routes, pricing structures and customer behavior in real time.

A recurring theme was the difficulty of pricing risk upfront in an environment where tariffs, currency movements, insurance premiums and routing constraints can shift sometimes within days. Long-dated pricing is becoming harder to sustain, and many businesses are responding by shortening commitment periods, building in renegotiation windows, or absorbing risk post-award rather than attempting to price it perfectly at the outset.

Contract interpretation also featured heavily. Participants noted that while regulatory frameworks may not have changed dramatically on paper, the way contracts are interpreted, particularly around force majeure, cancellation and liability, is evolving under pressure. Due diligence was also tabled for discussion.

While assets and infrastructure were discussed, much of the conversation around capacity centered on people rather than hardware. Experience, judgement and decision-making under pressure were repeatedly cited as critical constraints.

Operationally, as traditional routes become less predictable, trade is redistributing across a wider set of markets. This fragmentation introduces inefficiency and friction, but it also creates opportunity, including increased ton-miles, new project corridors and emerging markets that are becoming viable by necessity rather than long-term planning.

Rather than viewing fragmentation as purely negative, the focus was on how operating models are being adapted to cope with it, through diversification, optionality and a greater emphasis on execution discipline.

Looking at the human toll of disruption, it’s clear that the industry is drawing from a global talent pool that is both finite and mobile. Apprenticeship models have weakened, experience takes time to build, and competition for skilled planners, engineers, surveyors, masters and operations staff is intensifying. In this context, capacity is not just about cranes and vessels, but about whether organizations have the human capability to execute when conditions change.

What tied the summit together was a clear shift in mindset. The conversation was less about forecasting the future and more about how decisions are being made in the present. Shorter planning horizons, clearer escalation paths and explicit contingency thinking are becoming standard practice.

The conclusion was not that disruption will ease, but that direction now comes from judgement rather than certainty. Organizations that can adapt quickly, prioritize effectively and execute under imperfect conditions are better positioned than those waiting for stability to return.

That was the value of the session: not definitive answers, but a clearer view of how the industry is changing in ways that matter.

The Executive Summit will return to Breakbulk Middle East in 2027, once again convening senior decision-makers for a closed-door exchange on the strategic challenges and opportunities ahead. As disruption continues to reshape trade flows, fleet deployment and talent pipelines, the meeting will remain a vital space for honest dialogue and forward-looking thinking at the highest level. To continue the conversation with industry leaders shaping the future of project cargo and breakbulk, join us next at Breakbulk Europe 2026 on 16-18 June in Rotterdam.

Top photo: The summit brought together executives from across the project supply chain. Credit: Ulysses&Crew

Second: Executive Summit moderator Vanessa Welch. Credit: Ulysses&Crew