Today we share the Report of the global reefer fleet of containers in 2022 generated by Alphaliner. In it, we can see the total number of plugs and the capacity as a percentage of the fleet; that is converted from plugs to teu.
Top 10 refrigerated container lines 03-2022
Initially, from the chart above, European carriers could use more of their capacity to transport refrigerated cargo, as they are more active in Latin American trade operations than their Asian counterparts.
Furthermore, Alphaliner claims that Maersk still leads the rankings in refrigeration capacity, with a combined refrigeration capacity of almost 504,000 plugs.
It notes that MSC is the world’s largest container carrier, but ranks second in reefer container capacity with 443,000 reefer container connections.
According to the report, European carriers could theoretically deploy more than a fifth of their capacity to transport temperature-controlled cargo.
At the same time, it enunciates that Asian carriers have a lower refrigerated cargo potential that ranges between 15.5% and 17.5% of their fleet.
Although it indicates that MSC has overtaken Maersk as the container carrier with the largest total fleet capacity, but when shipping lines are ranked according to their potential reefer container shipping capacity, the Danish carrier remains number one.
The 739 vessels in the Maersk fleet (as of April 1) are equipped with a total of almost 504,000 refrigerated plugs. If these plugs were used to connect 40′ reefer containers and we multiply the number of reefer plugs by 1.98 (since a very limited number of reefer plugs are for 20′ equipment only), Maersk could use 23.3% of the capacity of its fleet to transport cargo at controlled temperatures, says Alphaliner.
However, Alphaliner states that this percentage is theoretical, as many refrigerated outlets on East West services will not be fully utilized. The 13,000 to 15,000 teu neo-panamax vessels are typically equipped with 800 to 1,200 reefer plugs, which will be used much more frequently when these ships switch from east-west to north-south traffic.
Maersk’s MSC leadership in reefer capacity is a consequence of its acquisition of Hamburg Süd in 2017. Hamburg Süd’s fleet included many ships built for refrigeration-oriented Latin American operations, such as the 10,589 teu CAP SAN NICO-LAS class, which It is equipped with 2,100 plugs. Only the 23,112 teu CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE and her siblings have a higher refrigerated capacity (2,200 plugs), concludes Alphaliner.
