Charterers will typically not pay enhanced rates to have their cargoes carried on a reefer newbuilding and this probably helps explain why shipyard orders are rare.
“It is too expensive to build reefer ships,” says Alpha Reefer Transport (ART) managing director Benjamin Emmert, who estimates that a simple design of 300,000 cbf, with derricks and the capability to take 4,500 tonnes of fish, would cost about $20m.
