PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Northern Cape. Interestingly, to the US,
there used to be only about 12 local
exporters, acting on behalf of the producers.
Many producers are getting more
sophisticated and handle their own exports.
When loading the vessels, the palletised
product is taken from the cold room to the
quayside and then onto the vessel with a
crane. During this process, the
temperatures can fluctuate. The vessels
are quite large and each deck is loaded
and closed off one by one (from the
bottom up), endeavouring to keep the
products at -0.6°C. Only once all the decks
have stabilised and the ship temperature
probes are at the right temperature, will
the vessel be allowed to sail. This is a
massive operation and loading a 16-deck
vessel with +4 220 pallets, for example,
takes about two and a half days. For the
US cold treatment programme, the
sterilisation period is 22 days. It takes less
than 22 days for the vessel to sail from
Cape Town to Philadelphia. However, the
vessel cannot be offloaded unless the 22
days of sterilisation cycle is complete. If at
any point there is a failure during the
22-day period or any temperature
fluctuations, the cycle will have to start all
over again.
Once the product is at sea, the stringent
temperature regime is controlled by the
vessel crew. CLA
They were on site within 10 days and completed the
entire upgrade in only two and a half months.
One of the five new valve stations fabricated by MRE for the new
cold rooms.
The signage for the ammonia installation.
ABOUT FPT GROUP
FPT Group offers a broad range of
landside and port logistic services. It
offers a complete integrated suite of
logistical solutions, from point of origin
to point of destination, for all cargo
types. It owns and operates three
multipurpose terminals in southern
Africa, situated in the ports of Cape
Town, Port Elizabeth, and Durban.
These terminals handle close to
500 000 pallets of fruit and a million
tons of general cargo every year.
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The control panel for the five new chambers.
New headers fabricated by MRE. These headers run from the modified
suction accumulator vessel to the cold rooms.
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
COLD LINK AFRICA • September | October 2017