As ports struggle to cope with a global oil glut, huge queues of supertankers have formed in some of the world's busiest sea lanes, where some 200 million barrels of crude lies waiting to be loaded or delivered.

The multipurpose shipping market is not expected to recover until the end of 2017, when it is anticipated that there will be more bulk demand for the Handy vessels and therefore more breakbulk cargoes for multipurpose vessels, according to the latest Multipurpose Shipping Market Review and Forecast 2016 report published by global shipping consultancy Drewry.

Mexico manufacturing has come a long way from the early days of simple product assembly in bare bones "maquiladoras" just over the U.S. border.

The American Association of Port Authorities suggested that its member ports intend to spend over $150bn in combined infrastructure investments by 2020 - contrasted with a "best-case" government investment in port-related freight infrastructure of only $25bn over the same period.