While the container reefer sector faces market challenges, technology innovation is at the forefront
Equipment shortages and imbalances are contributing to the current challenges in the container reefer sector – but there have been a raft of technology developments including the acceleration of digitalisation.
Cool Logistics Resources managing director Rachael White tells CST that the pressing issues of the day include: “Reefer equipment capacity shortages are worldwide due to ongoing disruption to normal shipping flows, with boxes ending up in the wrong place and delayed from getting turned and back into service as transport times lengthen. And there aren’t many spare ship slots for empty equipment repositioning as everything is full up with paying cargo.”
Cool Logistics Resources is a network, events and knowledge hub for perishable logistics, shipping and supply chain professionals. Its annual Cool Logistics Global conference and exhibition takes place from 19–20 October.
Ms White adds “Reefer trades are some of the most heavily imbalanced and the repositioning of empty equipment has always been a major challenge, with big seasonal peaks in key growing regions for fresh produce - South Africa and South America, especially.” She says that this has got worse in the last 18 months.
Highlighting other challenges, she says “There are extremely high levels of demand for newbuild equipment. There is ongoing tight equipment capacity expected despite large newbuild orders - the reefer container fleet was already lagging behind demand growth and natural replenishment after years of reduced investment by ocean carriers as they tightened their financial belts.”
Ms White adds “Specialised reefer vessels have seen a resurgence in demand as some of the major fruit export countries decided they couldn’t rely on the container lines to fulfil demand - including South Africa and New Zealand.”
She notes that reefer freight rates are rising, although not as fast as dry cargo – but Drewry Shipping Consultants’ Reefer Shipping Annual Review and Forecast 2021/22 predicts that reefer rates will continue rising in 2022 while dry freight increases slow.
Reefer freight rates rose 32% over the year to Q2 2021 and are expected to reach up to 50% by Q3 2021 according to Drewry Global Reefer Freight Rate Index.
Digitalisation accelerates
But despite market challenges, container reefers are developing rapidly in terms of technology and digitalisation. Ms White says: “Disruptions as with all other parts of shipping and logistics have accelerated digitalisation especially for better cold chain visibility.”
A blog by Orbcomm notes that “Pandemic times have seen an acceleration in IoT telematics for reefer containers amidst a surge of newbuilding activity to keep up with global cold chain demand amid equipment shortages. That includes more factory installations on newbuilds.”
To date, Orbcomm has deployed IoT telematics on over 600,000 container assets, mostly reefer containers.
Daikin Reefer director Kenji Takata notes that “demand for smart solutions with connected devices to give cold supply chain visibility and remote control is at an all-time high.”
He tells CST: “We are focused on data and digitalisation, working on making reefer containers smarter and better connected. That includes development of added value functions such as Smart PTI, a machinery self-check during normal operation, which is done remotely and automatically, and a failure prediction utilising available technologies within the Daikin group. Daikin is also looking into how AI can be used further.”
Elsewhere, in June this year, Carrier Transicold announced that it has consolidated its two mobile device apps for container refrigeration systems into a single app. Available as a free downloadable update for both iOS and Android devices, Carrier Transicold’s ContainerLINK app for service technicians now offers wireless connectivity previously only available in the DataLINE Connec app.
“Our ContainerLINK app has been widely adopted by service technicians who consider it an indispensable tool, thanks to the depth of technical and troubleshooting information it puts into their hands,” says Carrier Transicold digital transformation manager, global container refrigeration Bino Abraham.
“By incorporating functionality from the legacy DataLINE Connect app, ContainerLINK now enables ship personnel and technicians to wirelessly interact with refrigerated containers using Carrier Transicold’s Micro-Link 5 controller for better insight into equipment operation,” he says.
Energy efficiency focus
Another major technology trend is the demand for energy efficient reefer container equipment. Daikin’s Mr Takata says that this is “continuing to increase as the shipping industry and cargo owners adopt stronger environmental and sustainability targets, as well as looking to control costs”.
As an example of innovation and sustainability, Mr Takata points to Daikan’s Zestia machine which uses “highly efficient inverter technology with lowest power consumption without compromising cargo care.”
Another trends Mr Takata highlights is “the growing use of controlled atmosphere technology alongside temperature control to allow more - and more sensitive - fresh cargoes to be moved safely by sea for reduced cost and environmental impact vs airfreight, opening up new export and consumer markets.”
Mr Takata explains “The ability of the Active CA system to keep fresh produce safe during a long time in-transit, reduce food waste and extend shelf life is important due to the trend of more fresh produce being shipped longer distances, for instance from Latin America to Asia, and also considering the delays and disruptions in global shipping today.”
Indeed, a major development focus has been the Daikin Active CA technology. “The clue is in the word Active,” he says. “Versus other ‘passive’ CA, Daikin’s system continuously feeds a rich nitrogen gas into the container, which reduces the respiration of the cargo by lowering the oxygen content. It also creates a positive pressure inside the container, which prevents outside air from entering. This allows for a fast reduction in oxygen concentration, which allows Daikin Active CA to be viable for shorter voyages such as intra-Asia and other regional trades as well as longer voyages that take over a month.”
Daikin’s Active CA technology has been adopted by some of the world’s largest reefer container carriers and used for world-first services, including shipments made of Taiwanese custard apples, both to Malaysia in 2020 and earlier this year in the first ever shipment of custard apples to the Middle East (both for Yang Ming), and for a shipment of Peruvian sugar snap peas by ONE from Callao, Peru, to Yokohama, Japan. In another example, using Active CA container technology, Daikin successfully deployed CMA CGM’s CLIMACTIVE controlled atmosphere solution.
Other reefer technology providers also focusing on the environment and energy efficiency. In April this year, Thermo King launched Container Fresh & Frozen (CFF) refrigeration solutions for containers. The new CFF reefers feature improved temperature and humidity control, lower total cost of ownership and come with industry-standard R-134A low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant. For even less environmental impact, the CFF is also ready for the R-513A drop-in refrigerant option.
The new Thermo King CFF unit features an advanced temperature management control system that delivers best-in-class, precise temperature control of +/- 0.25 degrees Celsius in chilled mode and +/- 1 degrees Celsius in frozen mode. Thermo King says that for increased operational efficiency, the CFF offers fast pull-down and can quickly reach specific set-points to increase the storage life of shipped goods.
It adds that additional sustainability benefits and reduction in operating cost come from the ability to optimise the power consumption mode to consume less energy and activate a wider temperature spread without compromising the cargo.
A built-in remote monitoring module also enables the controller to interface with customers’ vessel monitoring systems
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