The container lease demand becomes strong from now on towards the summertime. The Shipping Guide of Ocean Commerce is introducing the data of US Research Company that container cargo of June from Asia to North America increases 3.7% to 1,287,507TEU from a year earlier and 6 month total from Jan. to Jun. increases 4.8% to 7,317,507TEU from the year before. June, single month and 6 months total show the record high respectively. Besides, as for the employment statistics of June of the American Department of Labor, the number of the employee is 222,000 increase compared with the month before. In addition, the unemployment rate maintains a record low level in 4.4%. The cargo movement for United States from China, Asia of this year will be favorable. The container demand gradually shows a drop curve gently after the peak in September until about November. The curve has been narrowing in difference between the strength and weakness after 2000. It is thought that the global spread of Just-In-Time production of Toyota Motor Corporation methods had caused it as the big factor. The method had an influence on the various allied industries, and the method has been accepted by other industries and has changed world distribution. As a result, as for the distribution, a tendency to change at a time in large quantities is reviewed, and it is important that distribution to move in a small quantity, many frequency stably through the year has been evaluated.
Japanese industries had suffered high cost by high Yen since Plaza Agreement of September of 1985. Therefore, they had been trying to find a way out of difficulty in the division of labor and transfer of the plant overseas to seek low personnel expenses and good quality. Of course we could not overlook the effect of division of labor and transfer of the plant overseas to the economic structure made by various global companies including Japan. On the other hand, the growth of the domestic companies of each Asian country has been remarkable and they have become to global companies in Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand due to abundant excellent human resources.
And in particular China has established themselves the position as the world’s factory after 2000. In response to it shipping lines and the leasing companies come to be able to place an order for the container makers through the year and it has supported Chinese container makers to become gigantic. The number of ISO containers used throughout the world is said to be 35~40 million TEU now. The total number does not decrease in the future, and it is more and more certain that the use number increases. The growth of container industry will continuously soar in future as well.
The life of the container is said to be 10-14 years. Repair charges increase when containers are used for a long time. It is inevitable to substitute the old ones with the new ones periodically and it would be useful to impression to many shippers. It is container leasing companies that could supply shipping lines with containers. In this regard, shipping lines cannot do without leasing companies. It is said that container utilization ratio of major leasing companies would exceed 95% now. Leasing companies who could be well supported with investment fund have been speculatively ordering many new containers from container makers. The rate of return on investments has been decreased among leasing companies so that major leasing companies could not deny the rise in financing cost. The current new container stock in China is 410,000TEU and the new container production price is $2,200 per 20f.
The establishment of Liner unification company, Ocean Network Express of Japanese 3 shipping companies was postponed from July 1 to July 7.
They completed to get all necessary approval for their merger from area and countries except South Africa. The new company will start on April 2018 with the capital of 30 million yen (38% for NYK, 31% for MOL, 31% for K Line) operating the fleet size of 1.4 million TEU which will become No. 6 largest shipping line with 7% of global share. Whatever you’re doing, starting off on the right foot is essential. I really wish that the new company, Ocean Network Express company to add Magnum Plus of Thermo King to one of their actual tools to promote to their shippers.
I think Ocean Network Express could be ready to use Magnum Plus anytime because K Line has been using about 100 x Magnum Plus already.
Hapag Lloyd and Yang Ming of the same alliance member have already been using several thousands of Magnum Plus. Other major shipping lines have already, aggressively been increasing the number of Magnum Plus these days.
R404a is compatible with a substitute refrigerant of R452a, and there is not the problem even if R452a is mixed with R404a. As for freezing capacity, R452a has ability to cool of -40 degrees Celsius as well as R404a. R134a unit is the max capacity to freeze -30 degrees Celsius. Because R404a is out of adaptation of the regulation of Cop21, it is not necessary to replace R404a immediately with R452a. Use of R452a has been increasing in a truck industry, and the production cost is falling. On the other hand, there are few repair expenses because Magnum Plus is structurally simple, and is strongly built. The aluminum made compressor could strongly endures long usage for rust, and there is little number of times to re-fill R404a. This is an official comments of the reefer container repairers and dealers.
<Superiority of Magnum Plus vs the other companies Reefer Unit manufacturer>
１） Highest Cooling Capacity : It is quite suitable in using in high ambient temperature and it could cool down even 10 years old box – 40 degrees Celsius in 6 hours.
２） Widest Operation（＋30℃ to ―40℃） : The great reliability of the ice cream maker.
3) Tight & Accurate Temperature : Temperature management of – 0.1 degrees Celsius is possible to the Chilled Cargo.
4) Fast Pull-down : it is so powerful so that it reaches to the setting temperature in a short time. As a result, it is the labor saving as it keep designated temperature in good time.
5) Lightest Machinery Weight : it is about 15 kg lighter than other makers. The lighter unit is very important to cope with upsizing of the containership. It will contribute to the labor saving of the containership very much.
6) Lowest Energy Consumption : it is energy saving eventually from the points mentioned above through life of Reefer container.
Magnum Plus is lighter unit with delicate temperature management, a wider range of temperature management and powerful frozen ability. If Magnum Plus is used it is positively sure to make many shippers satisfied in their various need.
In this sense, it would enormously contribute to the unification company of 3 Japanese Lines’ Liner, Ocean Network Express to get extremely high reliability from the new shippers as well as the existing shippers. Furthermore, it goes without saying that Thermo King would do not spare full-scale support for their decision.