New technique to repair containers

A UAE-based container repair company has introduced what it calls a novel solution to reduce the cost shipping companies incur on maintaining their containers.

Middle East Container Repair Company (MECRC) a 28-year-old company, said it recently begun playing an intermediary between shipping companies and those which ship commodities. This step involved assessing the damage incurred on containers in the process of loading or unloading consignments and then passing it on to the consignee.

The cost was earlier borne by the shipping company largely because of ignorance and this initiative is now saving some UAE-based shipping companies 80 per cent of their maintenance costs, MECRC claimed.

The step is the first of its kind in the world and the MECRC General Manager Poul W Joergensen said it is saving companies several million dollars in expenditures on maintaining their containers. "We charge the shipping company $20 per container for such inspections and with eight million containers arriving every year at the Jebel Ali port alone, the potential of this emerging business is high," Joergensen told Emirates Business. The total number of containers arriving at all the ports in the UAE would be much higher than eight million, Joergensen said.

There are seven competitors in the UAE that Joergensen identified but said that none of them did what his company does. "The cost of maintaining containers across the world is passed on to the shipping company though it is not responsible for any damages. We have changed the system by passing it on to the consignee."

Maersk, the largest ship container operator, recently visited the company premises in Jebel Ali to understand what Poul claims is an initiative that can save large shipping companies millions of dollars in maintenance charges.

 

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