Photo: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, 2006

Reefer Containership entering the Zeebrugge Harbor

Refrigerated containers represent a growing share of the containerized traffic handling temperature sensitive agricultural products and seafood. While a regular containership has several slots that can be used to house reefers (require electric power supply for long journeys), there are also specialized containerships designed specifically to carry reefers. They tend to be of smaller size but able to travel at higher speeds, thus more suitable to the nature of the product they transport as well as the specialized markets they service. On the above, a reefer containership is entering the harbor of Zeebrugge (Belgium) where a section of the port is specializing in receiving fruits from all over the world. Some temperature standards are being used, such as "banana" (13 °C), "chill" (2 °C), "frozen"  (-18 °C) and "deep frozen" (-29 °C).

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