Perishables trade within Asia will be the main driver of growth in the reefer market in 2015, according to Michel Looten, maritime director of Seabury Group.

"Intra-Asia is fairly stable and has actually picked up quite a bit in the last quarter," said Looten, who was speaking at the first Cool Logistics Asia conference in Hong Kong, during a session on global and Asian shipping trends in the perishables business. "Intra-Asia is the biggest trade of them all, so that's actually good news in general for people involved in the shipping industry."

This could help alleviate some of the difficulties facing many shipping lines.

CMA CGM, for example, fills its reefer containers with reefer cargo less than five times a year, according to Lars Kastrup, senior vice president of Asia at CMA CGM.

"This is one of the challenges that we, along with the whole industry, have," said Kastrup. "We don't use our equipment well enough."

By Jeffrey Lee

Staff Writer | Hong Kong

[The full version of this story will be published in the next issue of Asia Cargo News.]