Surging Chinese demand for Brazilian chicken and other perishables coupled with burgeoning demand in South America for Asian consumer products has led Maersk Line to strengthen its services between the two regions with a fleet of bigger box ships, reported the South China Morning Post.

Soren Karas, head of South China for Maersk Line, said delivery of the 7,500 TEU ships began this year and all the ships would arrive by 2013.

Maersk Line placed an order, worth about US$2.4 billion, according to shipping industry sources, for 16 of the ships with South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering in 2008.

Around 10 of the vessels, including Maersk Lebu which is about to be delivered by the shipbuilder, will fly Hong Kong's Bauhinia flag and are among 22 ships Maersk plans to register in Hong Kong that will take its total tonnage on the Hong Kong shipping register to about 2 million gross tonnes. The remaining six ships will be registered in Singapore.

"The ships have been custom-made for South American routes," Karas said. The vessels are twice the size of the Panamax container ships that previously served the trade. "They are shorter and wider, but have the draft of a Panamax ship" which allows the vessels access to draft restricted ports in South America.

The ships also have 1,700 plugs for refrigerated containers, about double the number of electric connections a comparable container ship was likely to have installed. Karas said this reflected the larger volume of refrigerated cargo the ships were to carry plus the anticipated rise in the volume of poultry, meat, vegetables and fruit that Maersk Line expected to carry from South America to Asia.

Karas said the refrigerated cargo trade from South America was "definitely a market that is growing".

He pointed out that container volumes between Asia and Latin America were growing at about 20 per cent per year, compared with an average of six to seven per cent for container volumes globally. Similar growth levels on the Asia-Latin America route are forecast for at least the next five years.

Cargonews Asia