It may lead to longer-term changes as wary shippers reexamine their transport choices.

"The heat has definitely subsided" when it comes to fixing MPV ships to transport containers, said One World Shipbrokers managing director Justin Archard.

Some 147,751 TEU of containerised cargo was imported into the US using non-container vessels during the first five months of 2022, a 104 per cent increase from the same 2021 period and a 139 per cent jump from the pre-Covid period in 2019.

A logistics executive at a chemical company declared the company has been working with a specialty charter broker to secure non-container tonnage.

The chemical company executive stated the firm will move cargo in any way regardless of the price and will only return those volumes to container ships when capacity returns.

Another company that normally imports and exports commodities in containers declared it has taken cargo out of containers and re-packaged it for breakbulk transport.

"We've secured space with guys new to the marketplace," with varying levels of success, said a logistics executive.

Supporting the possibility, BIMCO reported a jump in new orders for smaller containerships on June 23.

"Despite accounting for only 7.2 per cent of the combined trading fleet, contracting has been very active in the 6,000 to 8,000 TEU size segment, now accounting for 10.8 per cent of the total orderbook," said BIMCO chief shipping analyst Niels Rasmussen.

"Together with ships larger than 12,000 TEU, it is now one of only three segments for which the share of the order book exceeds the share of the current fleet."