Shipping lines add new refrigeration technologies

04/10/20150 CommentsSEO SEO

Two of the biggest shipping lines worldwide announced major technological breakthroughs into the transport of perishable cargo sector. Early, the so-called “reefers” or refrigerated containers had to be checked manually to guarantee optimal temperature and ventilation conditions for the transportation of products such as fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. The new ways of connection Machine to Machine (M2M) and the Internet of things (IoT) have changed the perspective on this field of the goods transportation.

The largest shipping line of the world nowadays, the danish conglomerate A.P.Moller-Maersk recently announced its partnership with AT&T introducing a Remote Container Device (RCD) to their units in order to collect data with the help of specialized sensors and send them directly to a website.

How does it work?

Each device has its own 3G High-Temperature SIM card, a GPS unit, a radio ZigBee with antenna and multiple interfaces for connecting into the refrigerated containers controller from any part of the world.

The shipping lines can have near real-time visibility of their units and identify customers that retain the units for longer periods. Each device is capable of running with solar energy and equipped with a chargeable lithium industrial battery.

Mike Troiano, Vice President-Product Management, AT&T IoT Solutions said, "Our container monitoring solutions can help them know that a shipment will arrive on time. Were helping businesses better manage their distribution process and offer a service customers can depend on”.

Each year, Maersk moves around 850,000 reefers, and will connect 290,000 units with this technology. Is one of the largest industrial Internet of Things deployments of its kind according to the Wall Street Journal.

Another important shipping line, Hamburg Süd, presented in the same period the incorporation to its fleet of Carrier Transicold’s XtendFRESH atmosphere control system for 400 of their reefers, as a way of support the fruits shipment, from west South America to Asia, North America and Europe.

According to the Journal of Commerce, the system allows the control of oxygen and CO2 levels and slow ripening. At the same time, ethylene is removed from the air, which is a gas given off by fruits and vegetables that affects the conditions and freshness of goods.

The Fact

All these investments make sense when analyzing the forecasts for the next years in relation to the use of reefer units. According to the last report of the London-based shipping consultancy firm Drewry, the reefer fleet has increased by 6% each year and is set to grow 20% by 2018.

Chart by: Drewry

About Veconinter:

Venezolana de Control Intermodal is a corporation with 27 years of experience, specialized in the administrative management of billing and collection for the maritime industry that provides an integrated operative process for the intermodal equipment. With presence in more than 14 countries, Veconinter is considered as a reference in the maritime sector. It is the only high-quality solution with an ISO 9001 FONDONORMA certification.