Reefer ships lose market share as cool-chain cargo migrate to boxes

WITH the container shipping showing weakness over all, box sector is not above poaching on trade of other shipping sectors - notably the declining fortunes of the specialised reefer ship.

An increasing number of ocean liners have been added reefer plugs to their box ships at the expense of the conventional refrigerated vessels which are continuing to lose market share to container lines, said the Dutch research and consulting firm Dynamar.

Dedicated reefer ships carried half of all seaborne shipments of refrigerated cargo until 2000. But by last year their share of the market had plummeted to below 30 per cent with volumes below levels of 12 years ago. And this, despite increasing demand for perishables, growing six per cent a year for 10 years.

A major part of the problem is the much smaller capacity of reefer ships compared to container ships, due to swell to 18,000-TEU.

Shipping lines also plan to charge more for transporting refrigerated goods. Maersk recently led several other lines in announcing increases of US$1,500 per FEU to be implemented next year.

As of mid-2012, 660 conventional reefer ships with at least 100,000 cubic feet of hold capacity were in operation, for a total of 216.7 million cubic feet of capacity. About half of these ships had additional container capacity estimated at 58,300 TEU.