The factory in San Antonio, Chile, will begin operating by the end of 2013 and reach an annual output of 40,000 reefer containers and 30,000 reefer refrigeration units by early 2017, Maersk's container industry unit said.
Maersk Container Industry (MCI) has production facilities in Qingdao, Dongguan, and Huidong in China and annual output of 41,000 reefer containers, 37,000 reefer refrigeration units and 200,000 twenty-foot dry containers, the company said.
MCI is an independent unit within the A.P. Moller-Maersk group. Historically about a third of its containers have gone to the group's Maersk Line, which is the world's biggest container shipping company, and the rest to other customers.
Reefers were earlier produced in the United States, but now all reefer production is concentrated in China, so the Chilean plant will be a milestone in the development of the industry.
It will be located next to a Maersk port terminal in Chile.
"The new factory will produce Maersk's high-tech reefers in a part of the world where exporters have problems gaining access to reefers," the company said.
Because of a current imbalance in world trade, tens of thousands of reefer containers each year are shipped empty to western South America to be loaded with reefer cargo, which is typically fruit and other fresh produce, Maersk said.
"All research shows that the reefer market will buck the trend of the crisis -- people want their bananas, they want their frozen fish," MCI spokesman's Erik Hogh-Sorensen said. (Reuters)
