Letter from the Editor

EDITOR’S LETTER

This year’s edition of the HCB Tank Guide comes at a time when the tank container industry is undergoing a period of tremendous growth. According to the International Tank Container Organisation (ITCO), which represents companies active in all parts of the sector, the number of new tanks delivered into the global fleet last year was almost 60,000 – the biggest number ever recorded – taking the total number of tanks up by more than 10 per cent to over 600,000.

While there has been some discussion as to whether all of those tanks have actually entered into service and there is evidence that many are still piled up in manufacturers’ and lessors’ yards, it is also evident that the use of tank containers to move dangerous goods is on the rise. This is particularly the case in China, where they are finding a growing market in the domestic chemical industry, but we also hear of major international chemical manufacturers choosing to use tanks rather than other means of transport.

There are some obvious reasons for these trends. On the one hand, lessors in particular have taken advantage of the low prices being offered by the major Chinese manufacturers (along with the low cost of money) to bulk up their fleets, and some of the major operators have followed suit.

But perhaps more significantly, many operators appear to be adopting tanks to move their product because they offer greater security and safety than other modes, which is of particular value when operations are carried out in emerging markets. In addition – and this is an important consideration for many – tank containers provide a comparatively sustainable means of moving goods.

Tank containers, manufactured from stainless steel, have a lifetime measured in decades. There is no need for individual users to consider their disposal, unlike other single-trip or limited-life containment systems. That does, though, rely on the existence of a global network of cleaning and repair depots and, as we have found when researching this year’s Tank Guide, that network continues to grow, not least in Asia.

The other section of this year’s Tank Guide to have witness a lot of changes comes in the area of ‘telematics’ – although that term hardly covers the scope of activities of system providers these days. It is no longer enough to know where a tank is; cargo owners these days expect a lot more data to be available in real time. They not only expect to be kept informed of their cargo’s whereabouts but also its condition; increasingly, they want to know the minute it has reached the consignee, so that an invoice can be automatically raised; and they may want to collect and interrogate the data that onboard digitised systems can provide to ensure they are operating as efficiently as possible.

The tank container, with its reusability and its effectiveness in delivering dangerous goods in bulk around the world, fits seamlessly with the newly digitised business world and also public expectations that dangerous goods are moving safely and sustainably.

More than thirty years on from the original development of the tank container concept, it appears that this is a mode of transport whose time has really arrived. We can look forward to a much larger and more global Tank Guide in years to come.