Dutch shipping consultancy Dynamar in an analysis says that the box ship fleet continues its upward trend and not only absorbs all new demand for reefer space, but also bites into the trade that was previously reserved for the conventional operators.
Dynamar Analysis :
- Orders for at least 19 new conventional reefer ships were confirmed during 2015 while only five were scrapped.
- Since 2000, more than half of all conventional reefer ships have been scrapped and conventional vessels’ share dropped to 26% from 60% since 2000.
- Container ships have more than six times the reefer capacity of conventional ships.
Statistics:
- The size of the reefer container fleet reached 2.6 million 20-foot-equivalent units last year. On south-north routes, container ships have more than six times the reefer capacity of conventional ships, according to Dynamar data.
- The theoretical annualized refrigerated capacity of container ships on south-north trades is 9.22 billion cubic feet, compared with 1.42 billion cubic feet of capacity for the current conventional fleet.
- In terms of reefer plugs on container ships in south-north trades, Maersk Line ranks first, with 103,000 plugs, Dynamar said, followed by Hamburg Sud with 87,000 and Mediterranean Shipping Co. with 85,000.
Based on the data based predictions, it is acclaimed that there would be days where there are no reefer vessels at all and everything would be containerised!
Source: Dynamar