WEC LINES enters the ref­ri­ge­ra­ted con­tai­ner market

The car­ri­er says the demand for ree­fer con­tai­ners has been rising ste­adi­ly across various indus­tries, inclu­ding food & bevera­ge, phar­maceu­ti­cals, and health­ca­re, dri­ven by the need for relia­ble and secu­re trans­port of temperature-sensitive goods. Accor­ding to the pro­jec­tions published in Drewry’s 2023 Ree­fer Ship­ping Fore­cas­ter, con­tai­ner car­ri­ers will see their car­ryings of ree­fer con­tai­ners rise with 4% a year bet­ween 2023–2028 as the peri­s­ha­bles trade pro­ves more resi­li­ent to eco­no­mic downturns.

The new 45ft ref­ri­ge­ra­ted con­tai­ners are all equip­ped with a state-of-the-art (elec­tric) coo­ling sys­tem to main­tain pre­cise tem­pe­ra­tu­re con­trol within a ran­ge from ‑30ºC to +30ºC, ensu­ring the inte­gri­ty of tem­pe­ra­tu­re sen­si­ti­ve or peri­s­ha­ble car­go throug­hout the trans­por­ta­ti­on pro­cess such as fruit and vege­ta­bles, fresh or pro­ces­sed food, phar­ma, and dairy products.

With its short sea ves­sels alre­a­dy equip­ped with ree­fer plugs and suf­fi­ci­ent ree­fer slots, last month WEC Lines laun­ched a new direct ser­vice bet­ween Aga­dir in Moroc­co and Por­tu­gal, Spain, and the United King­dom as a fast and green alter­na­ti­ve for fresh pro­du­ce importers to over­land truck­ing. The ser­vice pro­vi­des onward lin­k­ages to North-western Euro­pe e.g., the Net­her­lands, France and Bel­gi­um whe­re Moroc­can toma­toes and citrus fruits are curr­ent­ly fin­ding their way into Euro­pean supermarkets.

“With this new invest­ment, WEC Lines is rea­dy to meet the gro­wing demand for ref­ri­ge­ra­ted car­go within Euro­pe”, sta­ted Cae­sar Lui­ken­aar, Mana­ging Direc­tor WEC Lines. “Adding new ree­fer units enables us to ser­ve our cli­ents with new and fresh stock and also meet the lar­ge demand for new con­tai­ners and equip­ment avai­la­bi­li­ty in cur­rent markets”.

In line with WEC Lines’ com­mit­ment to brin­ging their eco­lo­gi­cal foot­print to net-zero by 2050, all ree­fers are equip­ped with one of the lowest power con­sum­ing machi­nes in the indus­try and a ref­ri­ger­ant with a low GWP (Glo­bal Warm­ing Poten­ti­al). In addi­ti­on, the foa­ming used war­rants signi­fi­cant reduc­tions in equi­va­lent CO2 emis­si­ons and has a zero Ozone Deple­ti­on Poten­ti­al (ODP), mea­ning it does not harm the ozone layer.

The­se ree­fer con­tai­ners will be included in the company’s rota­ti­on over the cour­se of the coming months, most likely also adding ref­ri­ge­ra­ted con­tai­ners to its deep sea operations.