Another strong reefer season ahead

摘要

The early part of 2020 will be remembered for unprecedented congestion and delays for reefer containers which carry the products we all put on our dining tables. Many thousands of boxes were stuck in China s ports or in transhipment hubs or they even got returned to their origins in Latin America. Specialist reefer ships came to the rescue in many cases to haul produce they had long given up to container lines. They did so at very attractive rates. Although the pandemic still rages, 2021 so far is different than 2020. Disruptions to logistics are not as severe as last year. Yet port congestion worldwide remains considerable, causing another shortage of reefer containers just when the world needs them most. Once more it seems to lend a boost to specialized reefers after a long period of poor returns and dwindling market share. Spot time charter rates for larger vessels (over 450,000 cbft) jumped to 110-115 US-Cents per cbft per month in early March compared with just 80-85 Cents one year ago, according to research firm Sopisco. The shortage of specialized reefer tonnage and of reefer containers is such that export activity of leading banana supplier Ecuador gets hampered, Sopisco warned. »[Seasonal] grape, banana and squid trades have slashed the availability of vessels in excess of 400,000 cbft capacity«, reported Irish Shipbrokers who raised their ISB Seafield Reefer Index by 6 % to 1,102 points during February (+2 % y-o-y). An abundant squid catch in the South Atlantic, a shift of Russian Far East herring cargoes from containers to conventional and the nascent blue whiting season on the Faroes have kept adding fire to the reefer market at a time when the southern hemisphere fruit season kicks in, Irish Shipbrokers advised. »Especially Chile has been active and we have a lot of vessels in that trade system. We are basically sold out«, said a chartering executive of a leading operator.