# Shipping wars



## rushie (Jul 5, 2005)

From the Gulf News - 

_The rows of grey, scaffolding-like frames in APM Terminals' new container terminal at the port of Zeebrugge, on Belgium's North Sea coast, look innocuous enough. For the shipping lines which run the world's specialist refrigerated ships, however, they represent a significant threat.

The frames, called reefer stacks, are for storing and providing electrical power to special refrigerated containers carrying anything perishable, from kiwi fruit imports from New Zealand to exports of Belgian pears. 

APM Terminals part of Denmark's AP Moller-Maersk group installed large numbers of reefer stacks when it built the new terminal because Zeebrugge is an important import and export point for fruit and perishable goods. The stacks are meant to help general container shipping lines to win more of that traffic from operators of specialist refrigerated or reefer ships, which typically carry the cargo in large, refrigerated holds below decks.

The battle is the latest between container lines and owners of specialist ships designed to carry goods not sealed in metal boxes. In many other sectors, container lines' low cost and the ease of transporting a container to and from the port have forced the specialist lines out of business.

The present battle is intensifying as container lines take delivery of new, much larger ships. As a result, a modern, large container ship such as Maersk Line's Emma Maersk can provide far more refrigerated space than even the largest of the specialist reefer ships operated by companies such as Belgium's Seatrade, the market leader, or NYK LauritzenCool.

Niche

Yet, despite container lines' record of destroying other niche operators, reefer operators believe that they can carve out a niche carrying goods that require careful temperature control and serving ports which are poorly served by container lines.

A new report by Drewry Shipping Consultants comes to the same conclusions.

John Rowland, vice-president of NYKLauritzenCool, says: "We accept that probably the majority of the growth will be absorbed by the containers.

"But I still think there will be one or two per cent growth annually in our specialist reefers." 

In theory, refrigerated containers ought to have some big advantages if goods could be packed at the grower's packing facility in South Africa or another producing country and left chilled until delivery to a supermarket's distribution centre in Germany or the UK.

In practice, according to reefer lines, perishable containerised goods usually need inspection on import and importers generally need to unpack goods and keep them in a cold store. That leads to their being handled the same way as non-container goods and negates most of container lines' advantages.

Container lines have the advantage that they offer regular, scheduled services from major economies and prices are also currently low as lines rush to fill capacity.

Specialised reefer ships, however, are faster and do not need to stop at as many ports as container ships because they are concentrating on one form of cargo. 

The reefer ships can also call at small ports without container-handling facilities. These are common in countries such as Colombia, a major banana exporter.

The result, according to Nigel Gardiner, Drewry's managing director, is a mixed outlook for specialist reefer operators. Reefer ships will compete well for certain commodities such as bananas and on routes poorly served by container carriers.

Other cargoes on other routes are likely to end up in reefer stacks like those at Zeebrugge._

Rushie


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## cboots (Aug 16, 2004)

Thank you for that Rushie, very interesting.
CBoots


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## rushie (Jul 5, 2005)

Cheers cboots,

Looks like the days of the reefer are well and truly numbered.

Rushie


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