Drewry forecasts ?modal war? in reefer trades

Drewry forecasts æmodal warÆ in reefer trades    Drewry Shipping Consultants said seaborne trade of refrigerated commodities is expected to make a “robust recovery' over the next few years.
   It also expects a “modal war” between specialized breakbulk reefer ships and containerships carrying reefer containers to intensify.
   The London-based consultant, which has recently released a new report on the reefer trades, said that in mid-2010 there were 727 breakbulk reefer ships with more than 100,000 cubic feet, a 17 percent reduction in capacity in the past decade. The average age of those ships is 22 years and about 37 vessels have been scrapped each year since 2008.
   Separately, Kartik Kumar, director of marketing and strategic planning, global container refrigeration at Carrier Transcold, the largest manufacturer of reefer equipment for containers, told AmericanShipper.com that production of new refrigerated containers in 2009 was 50 percent to 60 percent below the 110,000 reefer units (nearly 200,000 TEUs) that were produced in 2008, but was recovering this year. Other major makers of reefer containers are the Thermo King unit of Ingersoll Rand, Japan's Daikin Industries, and Star Cool, which is part of Maersk Container Industries.
   Drewry noted that in contrast to the declining breakbulk reefer fleet, “the number of newbuild containerships due to come on stream in the next two years, is greater than the whole of the remaining specialized fleet.” That specialized breakbulk reefer fleet could account for as little as 8.4 percent of capacity berthed by 2012.
   “Ironically, the projected growth in seaborne reefer trade favors the specialized type of vessel,' said Nigel Gardiner, managing director of Drewry. 'Yet this growth cannot be accommodated by the specialized fleets, handing the container operators a golden opportunity to increase their market share.”
   Drewry said seaborne perishable reefer trade grew 22.3 million tons from 2000 to 2009. ' Chris Dupin