'ISO tanks offer cost-saving benefits

There is strong demand for bulk liquid and chemical transportation into Africa, says Kreason Pillay, managing director of M & S Shipping. This is especially evident along the East and West Coasts of Africa – from Mozambique through to Kenya in the East and Namibia to Sierra Leone along the West coast – which is where the company is focusing its expansion efforts, says Pillay. It has begun increasing its fleet and is currently building tanks in Port Elizabeth – and has further earmarked landlocked African countries for future expansion, including Malawi and Zimbabwe. “The greatest challenge we face is converting South African liquid exporters and importers in the African countries to the concept of ISO tanks when they’ve traditionally used other methods such as drums or IBCs,” says Pillay. “We’ve embarked on an extensive industry awareness campaign to highlight the positive aspects of ISO tanks versus the traditional methods used,” says Pillay, who believes that ISO tanks offer numerous advantages. “They are multi-modal and can be transported via road, rail, cargo ships and even air freight (on chartered aircraft). In addition, exporters and importers can carry much larger volumes at one time in ISO tanks than using drums in containers thereby reducing freight, port and landside costs substantially.” Another benefit, he says, is that the tanks can be used for static storage when bulk storage is unavailable and there’s no need to dispose of them, as opposed to the drums. The tank container, which is a large stainless steel pressure vessel held within a 20- foot ISO frame, is safer because of its structure and composition, which eliminates the risk of the transported product being damaged in case of an accident. “One of our client’s production plants was recently destroyed by a fire which spread to an area where M & S Shipping’s ISO tanks were stored. The liquid inside the tank remained undamaged,” said PIllay. “The client will now build an entirely new production plant and will only use ISO tanks,” he said. CAPTION Fire-resistant…while this client’s entire production plant was destroyed by fire, and the M & S Shipping ISO tanks in the storage area took a hit externally, the liquid inside the tank remained undamaged.