Demand for reefer containers outstrips supply

MARINE REEFER (refrigerated) containers have built a solid landside market, proving a most costeffective solution for cold storage requirements in the agricultural, fishing and frozen product distribution industries, according to Barron Charsley, director of Container World, SA container conversion and supply major. Demand continues to grow, he told FTW, both in the domestic market, and with an equally thriving demand growth in the other overborder countries in southern Africa. “Market requirements are across-the-board,” Charsley added, “with options from a choice of chillers, holding and cold rooms, and blast freezers – to combined units. “Our custom-built units are specifically developed for harsh operating conditions in Africa, being structurally robust and with minimum maintenance requirements. They also have easy-tounderstand controls, and built-in protection against electrical supply fluctuations.” But the big frustration of the moment, according to Charsley, is that an ever-diminishing supply is just not able to meet the demand. “For us, the market is crazy,” he said. “We just can’t keep up with demand because it’s so difficult to source reefer containers – especially the 20-foot (6-metre) units, although 40-ft (12-m) are easier to acquire.” A major reason for the current shortage is the high international steel prices. “A lot of shippers are taking the refrigeration units out of reefer boxes, and sending the containers with single voyage loads – and selling them for scrap back in the Far East, because the scrap prices are just so high at the moment,” said Charsley. The result, he added, is that retail prices of second hand containers are rising at a rate of 20% year-on-year. In Africa there’s another reason for reefer container shortages. According to Charsley, the serious congestion at West African ports – particularly in Angola – is changing the face of the perishable transport market. “Shippers of perishables are now moving to trucks and reefers to move cargoes that previously travelled seafreight,” he said. “That, in turn, has increased overall demand for reefer boxes.”