Global events over the last three years have changed the face of our industry. One of the interesting outcomes is a change in the demand for new types of shipping containers. The past year has seen a new 48ft folding flatrack designed for China’s burgeoning car export trades, while China Rail Group has started phasing 50ft high-cube containers into some of its inter-city intermodal express services. We have also previously posted on trends such as Collapsible Containers (LINK) and Smart Containers (LINK).
As a share of the global container pool, the demand for “Specials” remains relatively small, at around 2.5% of the market measured in TEU terms. But due to their higher cost, their value share is nearer 4%, according to assessments provided in Drewry’s Container Census & Leasing Annual Report 2023/24.
The 50ft high cube units mentioned above have a tare weight of about 3.6 tonnes, a payload of 31 tonnes and an internal volumetric capacity of 114 m3. This is significant, as it is 50% higher than that available in the 40ft standard dry freight maritime containers that the rail company has been mainly using for this sector of its business.
Globally, high levels of inflation and economic uncertainty have dampened trading prospects – and hence the demand for new containers. The industry is still dealing with the oversupply of containers that built up over the Covid-19 pandemic period, when the focus was on buying 40ft high-cube equipment. After the surge in output of 2021, the past 18 months have proved particularly challenging for Chinese box builders with the production of dry freight standard containers, especially 40ft high-cubes, falling sharply.
It is developments outside of the maritime sector that are presenting some of the biggest opportunities to container manufacturers – including China International Marine Containers, Dong Fang International Containers and Singamas – and all are investing in plant and machinery to build these special purpose units.
Post-Covid, the demand to move breakbulk and project modules by container started growing, particularly for cargo associated with the renewables energy industries. In particular, it is the growing demand globally for energy storage units as wind and solar farms provide a greater share of the world’s electricity. This market is seen as being more stable and predictable than the volatile container shipping industry.
We sourced the information about Special shipping containers from Drewry, who are leading independent providers of research and consulting services to the maritime and shipping industry. As a result of these market trends, Drewry expects the fleet of special containers to accelerate and its share of the global container equipment fleet to grow over the coming years.
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