CMA CGM leads drive to reduce wood content in containers
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Monday 08 November 2010 by Gavin van Marle

Canadian firm Conforce develops polymer-based composite flooring material that has been certified for use in containers by ABS.

THE announcement that CMA CGM is testing the composite container floor material produced by Canadian firm Conforce could mark a major step change in one of the container shipping industry’s dirty little secrets.

While the millions of containers that have made their way on to the seas are seen as the most environmentally way to transport goods in terms of carbon emissions, those containers have also been a major cause of the decimation of large tracts of rainforest, particularly in Southeast Asia, where the container-makers flooring favourite, Apitong, is found in diminishing quantities.

Tropical hardwood has been the box flooring of choice since the invention of containers because of its durability. Over the typical 12-year lifetime of the average container, hardwood flooring does not need to be replaced, despite having hundreds of nails driven into it to secure cargo.

Nonetheless, it takes hundreds of years for rainforests to properly mature, and the container industry has been one of several sectors behind its widespread, unsustainable logging.

The only other material with the same durability is bamboo — incidentally also fitted in many CMA CGM containers — which is technically a grass.

Despite being remarkably quick growing and easy to weave into suitable flooring material, bamboo production specifically for the container industry is nowhere near enough to cover all the containers built each year, the 2009 box-building freeze notwithstanding.

The container leasing industry has long been aware of the tropical hardwood problem, and the International Institute of Container Lessors launched a programme in 2009 to investigate alternative materials that could be combined with wood.

That programme was extended for another year in June, and IICL president Stephen Blust explained: “The global demands on forest products are ever-increasing and the availability of quality material, especially Asian hardwoods, is declining. 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.

“The IICL’s objective to reduce the wood content in containers by 50% should help to achieve the sustainability of the world’s hardwood forests.”

However, since 2006 Conforce has been developing a polymer-based composite flooring material, latterly in conjunction with German chemical giant Bayer, and has been certified by ABS for use in containers.

CMA CGM is the first shipping line to test how effective it is.