What is BreakBulk Shipping and why should I use it?

Although shipping your items worldwide in a container might be the most practical option for you, it isn’t always the best solution or even a viable one. This is particularly true if you’re transporting project cargo or other sorts of non-containerized goods, such as sizable, heavy, expensive, or complicated pieces of equipment.

Additionally, breakbulk cargo can be challenging to arrange because it comprises sophisticated freight. As a result, planning can be challenging if you don’t know what to anticipate.

Breakbulk freight, also known as project cargo or non-containerized cargo, is too large to fit in typical containers. They are neither liquids nor dry aggregates.

Because you typically don’t need to break down products to load them onto a vessel, breakbulk shipping is a perfect choice for over-dimensional cargo. That implies that it’s also not necessary to assemble your goods once they arrive.

Additionally, as it is not containerized, a port crane is not necessarily required to unload it. This gives you access to more port choices, such as Roll-On/Roll-Off (RoRo) shipping. Additionally, when exporting overseas, you just need one bill of lading because everything is all in one piece.

Breakbulk Shipping vs. Bulk Shipping

Both breakbulk shipping and bulk shipping are likely familiar terms if you’ve spent any time in the international shipping sector. What’s the distinction?

Bulk shipping is the process of transporting huge quantities of loose items on a shipping vessel. The element of the two that involves loose commodities is hence the main distinction.

Grain, salt, sugar, sand, iron ore, and unmixed cement are examples of items that are typically shipped as dry bulk or as liquid bulk (like crude oil, petroleum and vegetable oil).

Some products can’t be shipped as ordinary bulk items or fit within a container. At that point, breakbulk shipping—which does have certain difficulties—might be something you want to take into account.

The top four advantages of breakbulk shipping are as follows:

1. The capacity to transport overweight and enormous objects that cannot fit in a container or cargo.
2. Shortening the time it takes to disassemble and reassemble products so they can be shipped.
3. Products can access smaller ports that otherwise wouldn’t be able to handle larger tankers or container ships.
4. Goods can be sent separately because they don’t need to be combined in a container.