GSCW chat recap: Reefer container market stays hot

‘The reefer trade market has probably been the most resilient out of any other trade group’

Greg Tuthill, chief commercial officer of SeaCube Containers, discusses the market for refrigerated shipping containers during the FreightWaves Global Supply Chain Week.

This fireside chat recap is from Day 3 of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week. Day 3 focuses on food and CPG.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: The market for refrigerated shipping containers

DETAILS: Greg Tuthill, chief commercial officer of SeaCube Containers, sits down with FreightWaves Executive Publisher Kevin Hill. The market for refrigerated shipping containers has held up during the pandemic. Beyond COVID, Tuthill explains what will drive demand for reefer containers going forward, including the need for year-round fresh produce and fish, and cold storage for vaccines.

SPEAKER: Greg Tuthill, chief commercial officer, SeaCube Containers

BIO: Tuthill has worked in the shipping industry for over 30 years. Before joining SeaCube, which specializes in container leasing, he held senior management positions at CMA CGM, APL, TOTE Maritime and NYK Line. He also served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

KEY QUOTES FROM ROSE:

“If you were to ask me to forecast the outcome of 2020 last March, I would probably have been 180 degrees off from where we ended up.”

“The reefer trade market has probably been the most resilient out of any other trade groups.”

‘The pharma industry has looked at refrigerated container vaccine storage, last-mile transport, and a lot of this may not be happening now because air freight is the key mode for vaccine transport. But as we get further along, emerging markets that don’t have the infrastructure and maybe don’t have access to temperature-controlled facilities may use refrigerators for vaccine storage, overflow storage or last-mile delivery.”

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