A recent poll by Toepfer Transport shows a large majority of participants expects to see at least a limited lack of cargo space and capabilities of the MPP fleet. The poll, asking “Is the current MPP-Fleet large enough and technically well fitted to cover the upcoming demand and cargo specs of the wind energy industry?” also saw 63 percent of participants even expect a substantial shortage of suitable ships and carrying capacity.

The Hamburg-based broker noted that the overall wind power-driven demand for MPP tonnage space is steadily rising, however, the fleet gets smaller and older. The size of the wind power components is rapidly increasing and only a small portion of ships can accommodate the new wind power blades with a length in excess of 115 metres and nacelles close to 600 metric tonne unit weight.

The high rise of freight rates in the past months puts significant pressure on the sector. Many companies calculated their transport budgets for ongoing projects at the much lower rate levels of the past and now struggle to mitigate the losses.

Wind power plays an important role In the ongoing efforts to curb global CO2 emissions. During the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), 70 countries highlighted wind power in their national action plans with many spelling out high GW/MW capacity or percentage targets.

The low order book of the MPP market may turn out to be a bottleneck in relation to achieving the political goals and thus may harm the pace of the urgent transition to green energy, which has to rely on smoothly performing logistic supply chains. This situation was and still is foreseeable and only the future can tell, whether the stakeholders in wind power logistics and especially the MPP shipping market will be able to cope with this challenging situation.