Crowley Maritime Corporation's liner services equipment fleet is continuing to grow this year with the acquisition of $21 million worth of containers, chassis, refrigerated containers, trailers and generator sets.

Part of the order - 600 45-foot (102-inch wide) dry containers and chassis - is currently being received in Jacksonville and immediately deployed in the company's Puerto Rico, Caribbean and Latin America services for the benefit of customers.

"Maintaining a competitive edge in our industry means we need to offer our customers the highest quality equipment of the right type and consistently make it available when and where they need it," said Rob Grune, Crowley's senior vice president of Puerto Rico/Caribbean Services. "Since 2003, we have invested more than $209 million in equipment for our liner services fleet."

In all, Crowley is acquiring 600 45-foot (102-inch wide) dry containers, 600 45-foot chassis, 120 40-foot high-cube and 40 20-foot standard refrigerated containers, 150 45-foot flat bed trailers, 50 mafi trailers and 274 generator sets in 2008. The refrigerated containers, gensets, flatbeds and mafis were received earlier this summer.

The company also used the equipment order to try a new type of container - 45-foot (102-inch wide) dry containers with recycled, composite flooring, which is considered more environmentally friendly than traditional wood floors. Twenty of the 600 45-foot containers have the composite floors.

Fairly new in the industry, composite floors may provide several environmental advantages. According to the manufacturer Singamas - the recycled material is more resilient against wear and tear; it's also water resistant, more mold-resistant, and corrosion-resistant. The recycled materials used to construct the flooring of these containers should prove more durable providing additional time between maintenance cycles.

Crowley'acquired the prototype shipping containers with recycled, composite material floors and will see how they perform.

The 2008 equipment acquisition adds to Crowley's already impressive and diverse equipment fleet. The company owns and leases more than 49,000 pieces of specialized equipment, including more than 20,394 chassis, 18,280 dry containers and more than 3,000 refrigerated containers - all of which are in a variety of sizes and strategically located throughout the US, Central America and the Caribbean.