Steam cleaning
in demand for
burgeoning
fruit market
THERE'S BEEN a big swing in his sector of the container industry, according to Chris Finnegan, m.d. of Container Services.
The refurbishment market for containers - once a cost-effective method of getting more life out of a box - died in the Western Cape some years ago, he told FTW.
We still maintain the only refurbishment centre in Cape Town, said Finnegan. But, apart from dribs-and-drabs, it's virtually unused.
The money now, he added, must be made out of repairs (internal, not structural) and steam-cleaning of containers. The latter mainly for the burgeoning fruit market out of the Cape.
The logic behind the death of the refurb market is, according to Finnegan's calculations, a simple cost matter.
If the cost exceeds a certain amount, the owners just sell the damaged unit in a buoyant second-hand, customised container market. About US$800 to US$1 000 is a going price.
They can then pick up a new box out of China for US$1 800. There's no point in a refurbishment of an eight, nine, ten year old box when you can get a new one for the same outlay.
The talk earlier in the container era about SA being a good, low-cost centre for international container repair/ rebuild has also faded away. The freight cost more than cancels out any cost benefit in bringing boxes into SA for repair, said Finnegan.
One of his company specialities is sandblasting containers. Unlike the wire brush merchants, we blast using very expensive silicon sand. It's
R1 800 for 22 cubic metres, and we'll get five containers out of that.
But it cleans every nook-and-cranny, and you get much more life out of your new paint job.
Empties are the main trade in his depot sector, he added. As an independent, he doesn't get the big-line trade. The big companies are looking for national deals, said Finnegan.
