CONTAINER INDUSTRY
WorldCargo
news
Downturn hits decal suppliers
ing side-logos and ISO regulatory sets in
advance in order to be ready once the mar-
ket picks up again. Others are in the proc-
ess of fitting fresh liveries to identify lessee
ownership following the transfer of equip-
2009 is certain to be a bleak year for all
those concerned with container produc-
Although the majority have other business activities to help fill
ment from operating to finance lease.
The opposite applies to containers
tion, not least the handful of major decal
the gap, the loss of substantial container-related production has
recovered from bankrupt customers that
printing or “conversion” companies based
in China, all of which had previously been
had a sizeable impact on decal suppliers
formerly held equipment under lease-
purchase. In this case, the lessee’s livery is
enjoying a boom in demand. being replaced by that of the leasing com-
Although the past year did not quite Table 1: Summary of global container decal manufacture (x1000 sets) into the second or even third quarter. pany in order to ready such units for
live up to 2007 in volume output terms, Most decal makers report that the only remarketing and help ease the massive in-
most decal suppliers were kept busy until
Year Dry freight Reefer Other Special* Total
other container-related business to be had ventory of depot-bound containers cur-
the final quarter and had also managed to
2004 1,740 80 65 1,885
at present - aside from production for more rently residing in China.
push through some price increases on the
2005 1,530 90 75 1.695
2006 1,875 95 80 2,050
specialised end-use - is coming directly A conservative estimate puts the cur-
back of higher new container prices. This
2007 2,630 115 85 2,830
from prospective buyers, rather than box rent surplus at around 4M TEU, with les-
was very necessary as the earlier oil price
2008 1,910 110 80 2,100
builders, and consequently going for ex- sors controlling at least 40%. In addition
“spike” had impacted their own material port. Much of this is being placed by leas- to this vast stockpile of operational equip-
procurement costs, but has since resulted *Tank, palletwide, swap body and domestic types ing companies, some of which are purchas- ment, another 400,000+ TEU of
in some factories being left with sizeable
amounts of higher priced container film
stock, which has only added to their woes.
Vinyl selection
Trust. Strength. Performance. True Quality.
Despite increasing in price, vinyl (PVC)
film was once again the firm favourite of
container buyers and builders alike, with
at least one major screen-print company
reporting a shift back towards its use in the
past year. This was partially due to a slight
fall in production carried out for major
shipping lines during 2008 and resulted in
a 80:20 split between the sale of conven-
tional vinyl decals and those produced from
the paint-mask or stencilling alternative.
This compared with an industry-wide ra-
tio nearer to 3:1 for earlier years, when the
latter system was still gaining ground.
The paint-decaling method has now
been in use for over 10 years and is fa-
voured by several leading shipping com-
panies headed by Maersk Line and includ-
ing MSC, CMA-CGM and APL, although
it remains less popular with other lines and
the majority of leasing companies.
The longstanding debate about the
merits of using paint instead of vinyl has
now largely run its course with each ver-
sion having its adherents, as determined
by their attitude to cost versus durability.
Moreover, just about every originator
of vinyl decals provides its own version
of stencil, while the latter application has
become commonplace at many container
factories throughout China. The biggest
promoter of the paint stencilling system
is still Maersk Line, which has used the
system for many years and continues to
specify it for all 40ft box production.
Detrimental effect
Container price rises in early 2008 had a
detrimental impact on paint-mask use due
to the cost element associated with decals
and other minor components being re-
duced. As a result, pricing became less of
an issue for box builders and buyers dur-
ing the busiest months of last year.
As the average cost per 20ft standard
went up by 30% and its steel content alone
increased by over US$500, there was clearly
little to be gained from saving a few dollars
per decal set, which may further explain
any resurgence in the use of vinyl as against
the cheaper paint-mask alternative.
In addition, most container plants were
operating at close to capacity and prob-
ably preferred the speedier and more
standardised hanging of vinyl decals
True Quality.
When talking about forklifts and efficient material
handling, which includes heavy lifts, one speaks much
within designated bays, rather than using
the paint-on method, which requires ei-
about quality. When we speak about material handling we mean a complete concept in which the forklift
ther a separate spraying process or a re-
peat pass through the main paint-line. plays a very important part of the process. The continuous co-operation between Svetruck and our
In the event, 2008 proved to be the sec-
ond most active year for box decal pro-
customers builds a long term relationship and is the foundation for a quality product. A strong and relia-
duction to date. At least 2.1M sets were
ble partner is what counts for a Svetruck forklift owner. Forklifts 10-52 t • Logstackers 9-28 t
supplied for newbuilds (see Table 1), a total
which was only surpassed by the record
2.83M sets sold during 2007. Several thou-
sand additional sets were also produced last
year for re-decaling and replacement.
Around 90% of the overall total pro-
duced in 2008 went for standard dry
freight use, with almost 200,000 destined
for reefer, tank, domestic, palletwide/
swapbody and other types of special.
Different story
With most dry freight container facto-
ries currently closed, however, the situa-
True Quality
tion is markedly different this year and to-
Svetruck AB Box 321, Långgatan 29, SE-341 26 Ljungby, Sweden
tal production is certain to be only a frac-
tion of that achieved in 2008, with all types
Telephone +46 372 866 00 Telefax +46 372 824 50
www.svetruck.com
of box production suffering significantly
and no resumption of volume manufac-
turing currently anticipated before well
March 2009 35
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