TRANSPACIFIC CARRIERS WARN OF REEFER EQUIPMENT SHORTAGE

TRANSPACIFIC CARRIERS WARN OF REEFER EQUIPMENT SHORTAGE    Major transpacific container shipping lines of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement have voiced concerns over refrigerated container equipment availability for U.S. agriculture exports to Asia.
   The carrier group said that market demand for U.S. exports of fresh and frozen fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood remains high, and U.S. pork and poultry producers are likely to “pick up some of the slack in sales to Asia, as Europe sells more of its total pork and poultry domestically.” The carrier group cited the foot-and-mouth epidemic in Europe.
   Increased beef and pork shipments from Australia and Canada to Asia in the wake of the European epidemic, along with stepped up intra-Asia bookings, also have begun to pull transpacific equipment returning from Asia out of the U.S. trade lane, a spokesman for the carrier group said.
   “We’re seeing strong demand as it is, but the European situation is something of a wild card, because it has the potential to alter equipment positioning patterns in ways that affect all U.S. shippers of refrigerated cargo,” said Albert A. Pierce, executive director of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement.
   Refrigerated shipments from the U.S. to Asia grew by 7.2 percent in 2000 over 1999 to more than 232,000 40-foot containerloads.
   The forecast for U.S. apple exports has been raised to 670,000 tons in 2001, up 25 percent from last year, the carrier group said. Nectarine sales to Japan are expected to rise significantly, and citrus exports, mainly oranges and grapefruit, are forecast to increase by 1.1 million tons.
   Amid this growing demand, carriers see potential operational and economic difficulties ahead, the carrier group warned. Given relative freight rates, “it is increasingly likely that a refrigerated container arriving in Asia from the U.S. will not return directly, but will be diverted for a time into the intra-Asia or Australia trades,” it added.