30 Years Ago

A LOOK BACK AT NOVEMBER 1987

Sometimes, when looking at copies of HCB from 30 years ago, one is struck by the distance we have travelled since then; at other times, one cannot help but think that little progress has been made. Increased computerisation has made a big difference, of course, but at the sharp end tanks still have to be welded and steel drums have to be rolled.

The front page of our November 1987 issue demonstrated just such a situation: it pictured a welder hard at work putting the finishing touches to the barrel of a tank container, much like a welder would today (though perhaps some might spot health and safety risks in the 1987 image). On the other hand, the introduction below takes us back to another world.

“In recent years European tank container builders have started to concentrate on ‘specials’ – including tanks for dedicated service and swap body tanks constructed to maximise loadings on European land and shortsea journeys,” we said at the time. “This change of direction, away from previous work on larger series of standard tanks, has been prompted by the fact that new builders are emerging outside Europe who are able to provide tanks at very competitive prices.”

How little we knew. Today there are few significant European tank container manufacturers left, and those that are still in business have mostly teamed up with counterparts in China, or are concentrating on niche business. Back in 1987 China was still largely closed off from the international market and those new volume producers were located primarily in South Africa, where investment in internationally trading assets provided a way for a country hampered by sanctions to earn foreign currency.

Those few tank container builders in the Far East in 1987 were all in Japan but were at the time suffering from a strong yen; we thought then that manufacturing might well move to South Korea – after all, the same movement was happening in shipbuilding. But the Asian currency crisis of 1988 put paid to such predictions.

We were on firmer ground with our forecast that Singapore would have an important role to play in helping develop tank container utilisation in Asia, acting as a hub for regional operations. That development had started a good decade earlier, led by Interflow, which was at that time owned by the Gallic Shipping group, although other European operators had begun to follow suit in the late 1970s, including Suttons, Leschaco, Stolt and VTG.

Development of tank container use in Asia in the 1980s was being held back by three main factors: trade imbalances and the lack of potential backhaul cargoes from Asia to Europe; a lack of tank cleaning depots outside Singapore; and a lack of awareness on the part of shippers of the potential benefits of using tank containers.

Over the years, development of the regional petrochemical industry has alleviated to some extent the problems of trade imbalance, while the opening up of tank container trades to and from North America has also offered better employment prospects. But the problems relating to cleaning and repair depot capacity and to shipper awareness are only gradually being addressed. The Asian Tank Container Organisation has done a lot in these areas in the past few years but there is still a way to go.