Held at the Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel, Singapore 20 and 21 June 2018
Meeting Report
Over 110 delegates participated in the 21st COA Members Meeting which took place in Singapore on 20 and 21 June 2018
A wide range of industry topics were discussed during the Conference on 20 June, with focus on current and planned COA Projects.
The following day, 21 June, delegates participated in a visit to the futuristic Sky Container Depot, located on the 7th Floor of the Cogent Warehouse/Logistics Building.
Members may download copies of the presentations from the COA website. Please find below a Report of the Meeting.
Introduction
- The Meeting was opened by Patrick Hicks, COA Secretariat, who welcomed participants, introduced the agenda for the day.
- He asked all participants to ensure that they read and complied with the Anti-Trust Guidelines which are in place for all COA Meetings
Keynote Presentations
- The first presentation “Container shipping – industry trends and market forecast” was given by H J Tan, Principal, Liner Research Services and Executive Consultant, Alphaliner. He gave an overview of the container shipping market, reported on new shipping capacity and carrier consolidation – and forecast the impact on container equipment.
- Mark Bennett, President, Sun Intermodal, gave a presentation on “Container Manufacturing: Trends in 2018 and Future Market Demand”, with an overview of trends in container production in 2018 and anticipated future market demand
- An introduction to Cogent Sky Depot was given by Eric Lee, Deputy GM, Cogent Sky Depot
- An Update from Korea, including news of Korean Container Shipping industry, was given by SY Chun, COA Korea Branch
- Philippe Berard, Board Member, BIC – Bureau International des Containers and Equipment & Depot Senior Manager, CMA CGM gave an update on BIC’s BoxTech project to delegates
Parallel Break-out sessions
- After lunch, the Conference divided into two Parallel Sessions
- Parallel Session A focused on Container/Technical Projects
- Telematics & Track/Trace: role of the COA – New Information Technology for Container Management, including tracking and tracing
- Cargoworthy Criteria – Introduction of common criteria for Cargoworthy containers
- Container Floor test – Introduction to reason for floor test, test procedure and participation in global depots
- Waterborne Coatings – Update on progress of waterborne, quality achieved, specification agreement status
- Reefer Containers and Refrigeration Machinery – Summary on developments of reefer manufacture, refrigerant gases and replacement gases
- Parallel Session B focused on Flexitank Activities
- Shipping line flexitank verification process – Update of processes and incident experience
- Technology developments – Summary of new developments, trends etc
- 40ft containers
- Reefer containers
- Flexitank Work Group Committee, including a debate of flexitank members – with opinions on representation within COA, purpose, agenda topics and representation
Depot visit on 21 June
- On the day following the Conference, the COA organised a visit to Cogent Sky Depot
- This included an introduction and presentation about Cogent Sky Depot
- This was followed by Practical demonstrations:
- Cargoworthy Criteria Comparisons
- Short Span Test for Floors