b'10American Journal of Transportation ajot.comRefrigerated cargoes expected to continue growth into 2022 T E M P E R AT U R E- CONT ROLLED As will freight ratesbut preferential treatmentLO G I ST I C S and technology deployment will help mitigate sup-ply-chain problems.By Peter Buxbaum, AJOTT R I-A N NUA LThe COVID-19 pandemic,Whilerefrigeratedcar-anditsconsequentsupply- goes may do better than others chaincongestion,mayhavemakingitthroughcontainer caughtupwiththerefriger- terminals,Westillface ated cargo businessbut lessthesamechallengesgetting socomparedtoothercargocargo through the network, categories.Globalsupplysaid Tuthill. Labor and net-chainsarenowcloggedworkspaceconstraintsare withallkindsofcargo proving to be the businesss fromfurnitureandexercisebiggest headaches right now, equipment to appliances andhe said.apparelas well as the fruits,Some of those same trends vegetables,meats,andsea- are reflected in results reported foodthattransitinrefriger- for the second quarter of 2021 atedcontainers.Butreefersby Fresh Del Monte Produce, appear to be faring better thanwhichsawitsgrossprofit other cargo categories. of$110.0millionincrease Therefrigeratedcon- (GROWTHcontinued on tainerbusinesshasbeenpage 11)growingstronglyinrecent years. Increased demand for year-roundavailabilityofa varietyofrefrigeratedcon-sumableshasconsistently been filling those boxes. The reefer business has also ben-efitted from a shift from bulk refrigerated ships to contain-ers (although the current con-gestionhasbreathedsome life,probablyshort-lived, into the bulk refrigerated seg-ment.)Thatswhycompa-nies like SeaCube Container, alessorofcontainersand equipment,hasincreasingly emphasized the reefer side of its business in recent years.Intheearlydaysofthe pandemic,volumesofmany cargocategoriesplummeted, butdemandforperish-ables suffered less, and then reboundednicely,asmore peopleateathomeand sought more fresh foods. The analysts at Drewry found that the ocean perishables trade in 2020declinedby0.4%,but that reefer volumes advanced 0.3% to 5.4 million TEU. Later, demand for all sorts ofgoodsspiked,aspeople startedspendingonhome improvementsandhome offices,amongotherthings, while refrigerated cargoes pro-ceeded apace. During the first half of 2021, seaborne reefer traffic expanded by 4.8% year over year, led by higher vol-umes in the meat, citrus, and exoticstrades,accordingto Drewry. Now, reefer operators and cargo owners have to con-tend with the clogging of the supply chain, but maybe not as much as those involved in other categories of cargo.r eeferP riorityReefersalwaysreceive prioritized stowing, explained Greg Tuthill, senior vice presi-dentandchiefcommercial officer of the Woodcliff, New Jersey-basedSeaCube.We havent seen as much delay as they have in the dry cargo seg-ment but we are not immune to congestion either.'