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.”