Sustaining container floor sustainability
The Institute of International Container Lessors (IICL), in its efforts to address the worldwide issue of container flooring serviceability and sustainability, has expanded the work of its flooring working group initiatives.
Floors in most standard containers today are made from wood or wood composites.
'The demand for forest products around the world are ever-increasing, and the availability of quality material is declining,' said Steven Blust, IICL president, in a statement. 'The long-term viability of wood flooring in containers is being threatened, unless steps are taken to bring supply and demand into a sustainable and long-term balance.
| Blust |
'The IICL, in recognition of this situation, has established a goal to reduce the wood content in containers by 50 percent, which should help to achieve the sustainability of the world's hardwood forests,' he said.
The IICL has recently concluded a successful in-service trial of a fleet of 400 containers that incorporated two unique floor designs that eliminate about half of the wood used in the standard containers built today. The containers were placed into a live test for two years with 11 ocean carriers in various trades.
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The organization said the trial program's results have confirmed the designs' performance and have encouraged the IICL to expand the working group to include other container owners to further evaluate the container floor design concepts, as well as other designs with the goal of identifying and recommending designs for both the short run and long run.
'Premature failure of plywood can lead to the early retirement of the owner's asset,' said Gary Danback, IICL's technology director. 'It is with this focus that the IICL carries on with its flooring projects. In addition we are committed to working with our customers and container manufacturers to find our way forward to address this serious issue.'
The IICL, for the last decade, has monitored the quality of plywood used in container flooring production. 'Initial efforts to develop a 'preferred standard' for plywood floors as well as plywood factory audits are in place, and have been gaining momentum throughout our industry,' Danback said.
'Both leasing and ocean carrier equipment owners monitor production of plywood and the quality of numerous factories throughout Asia,' he added. 'These efforts optimize the quality of plywood used in container floors.'
During the 2010 European Intermodal Exhibition that was held in Amsterdam, the IICL invited the ocean carriers to participate in a workshop and to once again discuss IICL floor designs and explore the possibility of furthering the effort with ocean carrier direct participation. This initial meeting allowed the leasing companies and the Container Owners Association to begin a dialogue and set the stage for a more comprehensive discussion, the IICL said.
'This joint working group has scheduled its first meeting in early May 2011 to exchange views on alternatives to maintain container flooring serviceability and expand sustainability,' Blust said. 'The IICL looks forward to this joint effort and applauds those who acknowledge the challenge and their willingness to discuss a way forward for our industry.'
Joint working group chairman Tony Sowry of Textainer and Frank Nachbar of Hapag-Lloyd have encouraged the ocean carrier community (equipment owners) to participate and become involved in this project. Along with sustainability and serviceability goals, the IICL will also work with container manufacturers to assure the selected design is equal or better in quality, have no additional financial burden but the same performance characteristics of current designs.
IICL is a trade group that represents lessors of marine containers and intermodal chassis. Its members include Beacon Intermodal Leasing, CAI International, Cronos Ltd., Flexi-Van Leasing, Florens Container Services Co. GE SeaCO Services Ltd., Gold Container Corp., SeaCube Containers, TAL International Container Corp., Textainer Equipment Management (U.S.) Ltd., TRAC Intermodal, and Triton Container International.