Looking at the fundamentals NEWS Integrated Reefer 2nd quarter 2018 By Søren Leth Johannsen, Chief Commercial Officer 2018 is shaping up to be a challenging year for all owners and operators of containers. The first quarter financial reports released by the listed companies clearly document the severe impact of increasing bunker costs and vessel charter rates. In addition, the procession of newly built large container vessels leaving the shipyards continues to apply pressure on freight rates. Demand in the reefer segment continues the positive development we experienced last year, and 2018 has the potential to become a very strong year with around 140,000 reefers forecast across the market as a whole. Reefer container manufacturers are in many ways mimicking the container operators when it comes to capacity increases. Over the last couple of years, all established reefer container companies have increased production capacity for reefer boxes, and the level of competition has been increased by the inclusion of a newcomer not previously involved in the ISO reefer market. To meet these new challenges, innovation and our unique product offerings are the key tools that will enable MCI to stand out in this highly competitive environment. MCI remains the first and only company to have full control of design, sales and production of both reefer containers and machinery. This gives our customers the great benefit of being able to deal with just one company for the entire reefer product value chain. MCI has been innovating container design and production since our very earliest days. The advent of the Star Cool unit heralded a new era of energy efficiency and affordability for reefer operators. From there, we went on to lead the industry with dual-stage compressors, dual defrost, dual units able to run on a single power outlet, integrated reefers, operation with multiple refrigerants including low-GWP R513A, power meter function, CA systems fully integrated into the reefer, smartphone alarm and service apps, to name just a few. Innovation naturally inspires imitation, but we have proved capable of strengthening our position in this highly competitive market by continuing to listen to our customers and being the first to solve their cargo care and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) concerns. A recent example of MCI’s ability to meet the demands of the market was Chiquita’s order for 2,500 Star Cool Integrated reefers, which was announced in April. Besides commenting on the robustness and effectiveness of the CA system, Great White Fleet Ltd. President Stefano Di Paolo observed: “Using Star Cool Integrated containers over the last two years, we are satisfied with the high-quality banana delivery. At the same time, we have achieved significant operational efficiencies and markedly reduced our energy consumption. This goes hand in hand with our commitment to sustainable shipping practices and we are now looking forward to even more power reductions as a result of adding the newest technology in this field.” TCO extends to the everyday maintenance and service costs that operators incur in the harsh environment that shipping presents on a daily basis. MCI has included a suite of parts categorised as consumables into our parts portfolio to help operators and service providers to benefit from our high-volume purchase and associated lower cost of power plugs, cables, splice kits, filter driers and more. These high-turnover parts often constitute a major proportion of M&R spend and lowering the cost of these items can favourably influence TCO, even for machines that were not manufactured by MCI. I hope you enjoy reading this Q2 edition of Integrated Reefer News.
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