Reefer Ships

Group D
 Table of Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4

Structure of Reefer Ships and Design Developments ..................................................... 5

Loading and Discharging Ports ....................................................................................... 9

Types of Cargo .............................................................................................................. 14

Trade Volumes .............................................................................................................. 15

Research and forecasts ................................................................................................ 16

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 18

References .................................................................................................................... 19

2
 Executive summary

This report provides an insight, and an analysis towards reefer ships and its trade. The
insight includes the history, the purpose, the design and its evolution over the years,
and the 3 main types of reefer ship variances and the characteristics each has

The report consist of an analysis towards the main loading and discharging ports, the
main types of cargo it transports better the loading and discharging ports, the route or
routes it takes, the frequency of shipping use per year and the vessel type used towards
the shipment of the goods.

Finally, an analysis was done in terms of the current demand as well as the future
demand forecast towards reefer ships and its future market standing. Thereby a
conclusion was based on such findings.

3
 Introduction

A reefer ship is a refrigerated cargo ship which is typically used to transport perishable
commodities which require temperature-controlled transportation, such as fruit, meat,
fish, vegetables, dairy products and other foods.

Transportation of goods is not only limited to non-perishable products but perishable

commodities are also required to be transported which might get spoiled during transit if
the proper temperatures are not maintained. A reefer ship is a cargo vessel that is used
for the carriage of cargo that requires to be maintained at temperatures other than the
temperature related to immediate surroundings.

Reefer Vessels are designed for speed and not for comfort. They are amongst the
most uncomfortable ocean going vessels and move easily to even slight seas and
swell. It takes a special kind of sailor to operate these ships.

4
 Structure of Reefer Ships and Design Developments

Reefer designs have undergone various changes over the years. Some are common to
all vessel types – cargo handling gear, engine design etc.

The reefer trade has been dominated the most with carriage of bananas.

Around 35 years ago, banana carriage was achieved by directly hanging bunches
banana in specially designed bins (much like the garbage bins of today). In later years
the fruit was transported in boxes, which were stored individually by hand in the cargo
holds. Nowadays the carriage has progressed to the practice of palletized carriage
which leads to more efficient handling.

Container transport in the reefer trade has also dramatically increased.

Banana republic is a disapproving term, defined in the dictionary as a small country with
an unstable government typically a military dictatorship, and an economy dependant on
the export of a single product or on outside financial help. This term is mentioned her
with good reason. Most reefer food trade originates from areas where such conditions
had once prevailed. As a result reefer ships were not exposed to many port facilities in
their load ports. This factor also largely contributed towards vessel designs. (The advent
of side door reefers)

To counter the loss of space due to insulation in the holds, reefers were usually
designed with dual purpose DB tanks. This allowed the vessel to load maximum cargo
with bunkers in the load port. As the fuel was consumed the resulting empty bunker
tankers were ballasted as required by stability needs. A more modern approach is
applied today in compliance with Marpol and all prevailing rule and regulations.

5
Reefer vessels are designed for speed and not for comfort. They are amongst the most
uncomfortable ocean going vessels and move easily to even slight seas and swell. It
takes a special kind of sailor to operate these ships.

Structure of a sample reefer ship :

 LOA – 150 m
 B – 20 m
 BHP – 10 000
 4 Holds
 4 decks per hold

A reefer ship design also incorporates more pipelines than on most tankers. These lines
are the refrigerant lines, which lead to each cargo space.

Usually this refrigerant is the secondary cooling element and is brine. These brine lines
lead to a cooling battery pair located in each deck (a total of 16 in the sample ship
mentioned above). Each such brine line feeds a bank of cooling coils per battery, which
cools the forced airflow generated by 8 – 12 cooling fans over each such coil.

6
Reefer ships may be categorized into three types(Types of Reefer Ships):

1. Side-door vessels have water tight ports on the ships hull, which open into a
cargo hold. Elevators or ramps leading from the quay serve as loading and
discharging access for the forklifts or conveyors. Inside these access ports or
side doors, pallet lifts or another series of conveyors bring the cargo to the
respective decks. This special design makes the vessels particularly well suited
for inclement weather operations as the tops of the cargo holds are always
closed against rain and sun.

2. Conventional vessels have a traditional cargo operation with top opening hatches
and cranes/derricks. On such ships, when facing wet weather, the hatches need
to be closed to prevent heavy rain from flooding the holds. Both above ship types
are well suited for the handling of palletized and loose cargo.

7
3. Refrigerated container ships are specifically designed to carry containerised unit
loads where each container has its individual refrigerated unit. These containers
are nearly always twenty-foot equivalent units (often called TEU) that are the
"standard" container cargo size that are loaded and unloaded at container
terminals and aboard container ships. These ships differ from conventional
container ships in their design and power generation and electrical distribution
equipment. They need provisions made for powering each container's cooling
system. Because of their ease of loading and unloading cargo many container
ships are now being built or redesigned to carry refrigerated containers.

8
 Loading and Discharging Ports

Chile-St. Petersburg

cargo stonefruit, grape, apple, pear, kiwi

container services on request and subject to vessel capacity
routes Valparaiso—St. Petersburg
load port(s) Valparaiso
discharge port(s) St. Petersburg
frequency every 10 days
operational January—May
backhaul cargo No
transhipment No
vessel types 3,000-3,500 pallet capacity

Costa Rica-Colombia-Europe

cargo under deck: banana, pineapple

on deck (containers): fern, pine, melon
container services fern, pine, melon (chartered out to
StreamLines)
routes Costa Rica—Colombia-Northern
Continent
load port(s) Turbo, Moin Bay, Santa Marta
discharge port(s) Dover, Flushing, Rotterdam
frequency weekly sailings
operational year round
backhaul cargo WB Antilles (under StreamLines account)

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transhipment No
vessel types various

Ecuador-Peru-Europe

cargo under deck: banana, pineapple

on deck (containers): shrimp, frozen
fish, flowers, avocado, mango, papaya,
grapes, pomegranate, melon, pineapple,
CA-banana, citrus, asparagus,
vegetables
container services shrimp, frozen fish, flowers, avocado,
mango, papaya, grapes, pomegranate,
melon, pineapple, CA-banana, citrus,
asparagus, vegetables
routes Ecuador-Peru-Northern Continent
load port(s) Puerto Bolivar, Guayaquil, Paita
discharge port(s) Dover, Hamburg, Rotterdam/Flushing
frequency weekly sailings
operational year round
backhaul cargo Yes
transhipment Yes
vessel types E-class, Hansa-class

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Europe-Pacific-New Zealand-Europe

cargo South bound: mix of general cargoes

(including cars, machinery, yachts/boats
etc.)
North bound: palletised fruit under deck,
containers and yachts/boats on deck
container services all types (refrigerated, frozen, dry)
routes Europe—Panama—Pacific Islands—New
Zealand—Panama—Europe
load port(s) Sheerness, Antwerp, Dunkirk, Radicatel
(Le Havre), Panama, Papeete, Noumea,
Auckland, Napier, Nelson, Tauranga,
Vigo, Zeebrugge, Tarragona
discharge port(s) Idem
frequency sailings every 10 days
operational South bound: year round
North bound: March—October
backhaul cargo Yes
transhipment No
vessel types Maxi, Polar, Hansa

Netherlands-Surinam

cargo mix of general cargoes (including pallets,

drums, big bags, machinery, roro,
containers, etc.), partly refrigerated
(potatoes and onions) and partly non-
refrigerated
container services all types (refrigerated, frozen, dry)

11
routes Rotterdam/Flushing – Paramaribo
load port(s) Rotterdam/Flushing
discharge port(s) Paramaribo
frequency bi-weekly sailings
operational year round
backhaul cargo yes (for trade line Ecuador—Europe)
transhipment No
vessel types E-class, Hansa-class

South Africa-Europe

cargo Citrus
container services all types (refrigerated, frozen, dry)
routes South Africa—UK and Continent
South Africa—Western Mediterranean
load port(s) Maputo, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape
Town
discharge port(s) Sheerness, Rotterdam, Flushing,
Tarragona, Vado
frequency every 7-10 days
operational May—September
backhaul cargo on demand
transhipment on demand
vessel types Various

Turkey-Europe

cargo palletised citrus

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container services No
routes Mersin—Sheerness
load port(s) Mersin
discharge port(s) Sheerness
frequency every 7-10 days
operational beginning of October—end of January
backhaul cargo No
transhipment No
vessel types Various

13
 Types of Cargo

There are three types of cargo that dominate the reefer industry: bananas, deciduous
fruits and citrus fruits. Other commodities include meat, seafood and dairy products. Not
only edible goods but also other products like chemicals and medicine are shipped
using these ships. Those are products that have normal degradation in its physical,
chemical and biological features as a result of weather and environment conditions.
These products are maintained at given temperatures which are unique to each other.

Products such like ice cream are usually maintained at -35°C. Other products such as
grapes, onions, garlic and citrus fruits are maintained at 10°C. Medicine is kept at 30°C.
Sea food is given -18°C.

14
 Trade Volumes

The reefer ships are mainly known for carrying refrigerated items. Bananas are the most
famous food item that can be carried in these types of vessels. Additionally, shrimp,
frozen fish, flowers, avocado, mango, papaya, grapes, pomegranate, melon, pineapple,
citrus, asparagus and vegetables are also among items that are transported.

The following points explain the capacities and volumes of these types of vessels (as of
2013) :

 Reefer box capacity is 1.6 million 40 ft. slots

 Reefer container volumes are forecast to rise by 20.5 million tonnes over this
period, 16.5 million tonnes by organic growth and 4 million tonnes at the expense
of the shrinking specialised reefer industry. Overall seaborne perishable reefer
trade will increase by 17% between 2013 and 2018, providing an additional 16.5
million tonnes of cargo.

 The worldwide seaborne perishable reefer trade rose at an annual rate of 3.2% in
the 10 years to 2013, reaching 98 million tonnes in 2012. Sectors driving this
growth have been meat and exotic fruit, with the latter rising as much as 9.3%
each year over the period.

15
 Research and forecasts

Worldwide perishable reefer trade has increased by 52.1 million tonnes between 2002
and 2012, which represents by a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6%.
Seaborne perishable reefer cargo has increased by a CAGR of 3.3% (25.6 million
tonnes) from 66.8 million tonnes in 2002 to 92.4 million tonnes in 2012.

According to Drewry, a London-based consulting and research firm, Reefer capacity of

global container ships is set to increase by around 22 percent in the next five years, at
the expense of a shrinking specialized reefer fleet .The specialized reefer fleet sector
might lose 4 million metric tons of cargo to container ships by 2018. Reefer volumes will
rise to 20.5 million metric tons in the next five years. According to these researches it
includes 16.5 million metric tons of organic growth and 4 million metric tons from
replacing specialized reefer ships. On the whole, seaborne perishable reefer trade will
see 17 percent increases in the period between 2013 and 2018, providing an additional
16.5 million metric tons of cargo. The first half of 2013 appeared to herald the start of a
long awaited upturn for the specialized reefer industry. Time charter rates improved,
scrapping had shrunk the fleet to more manageable levels and the containership
industry finally seemed to understand that life was not all about market share.

Seatrade is lengthening its existing specialized reefer ships with the insertion of a fully
cellularized hold, and is purchasing new reefer container ships. In June 2014, the carrier
announced the acquisition of two new ships with capacities of 2,200 20-foot-equivalent
units and a reefer capacity that equates to approximately 12,000 pallets. While
designing new ships to carry more reefer boxes, carriers are relying primarily on lessors
to supply the containers themselves. Drewry estimated 70 percent of orders for new
reefer boxes now are placed by lessors, compared with 40 percent at the end of 2013.

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17
 Conclusion

Reefer ships transports mostly goods that are perishable as well as chemicals which
are required to be kept at constant temperatures. This results in having expensive
substitutes such as air transport to transport them, making then in having a competitive
advantage and having an inelastic demand against price changes.

Through research and findings, we can determine that there will be a continuous
increase in the demand for reefer ships and reefer transportation due to reasons such
as the increase in global population, globalization ,etc. also the industry is now focusing
on building bigger reefer ships than having more of them, which will benefit shippers as
well as preparing for the increased forecasted demand as proven by the organization
called “Seatrade” who is one of the market leaders, by purchasing 2 new reefer ships
which has the carrying capapcity of 2200 20 TEUs

18
 References

http://www.drewry.co.uk/news.php?id=282

http://www.crosstree.info/Documents/reefer%20vessels.pdf

http://www.seatrade.com/about-reefer-shipping.html

http://www.pfri.uniri.hr/~bknez/REFRIGERATED%20CARGO%20SHIPS.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/ihab16tarek/reefer-ships

19
Group Members
NAME
Dharmaratnam, Lihini C
Fernando, W D C Harindee
Fernando, W Leon Prasad
Kuruppu, K A Dinelka P
Lakshman, K Denuwan T
Marzook, Nimry
M P Manamperi
Wijerathna, Sashika Erantha
Ilukpitiya, M D Y Y
INDEX NUMBER
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-203
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-222
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-223
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-285
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-290
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-307
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-121
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-422
BSC-PLY-MGT-14.2-
20