Reefer Ships: Resilient Link in the Cold Chain

Ongoing fleet renewal by niche player Cool Carriers indicates continuing competitiveness at scale of the specialized, pallet-optimized reefership.

Not so long ago, it seemed that the unrelenting march of containerization and ever-widening influence of the powerful ocean container line entities would finally usurp the conventional, breakbulk refrigerated cargo vessel. However, Limassol, Cyprus-headquartered Cool Carriers, the largest operator in the sector, displays remarkable resilience through consecutive programs of tonnage development.

Hard on the heels of a period of renewal centered on five ships in the 900,000-cu.-ft. category, the highest-capacity breakbulk reefers ever commissioned, the company has this year received the first two of seven confirmed newbuilds in the 630,000-670,000 cu. ft. range. Moreover, a further batch of vessels is understood to be in the offing.

Cool Carriers is a practitioner of the service principle known as fast, direct and dedicated (FDD). This is an alternative and a challenge to routings via services run by the large ocean container lines, where overall transit times and overall costs can be higher for refrigerated consignments. FDD is attuned to the particular time and handling sensitivities of fresh produce transportation and niche trades. By using specialized vessels on a direct voyage basis between ports with