After the takeover of Cool Carriers by Lauritzen and the setting-up of Lauritzen-Cool end 2000, Swan Reefers bought Star Reefers as a first step, and then joined forces with NYK to form a new pool NYK-Star Reefers, which controls 72 ships between 393,000 and 670,000 cu ft.

Hamburg-S'd who had been a partner in Star Reefers left the pool and four of their eight ships went to join the Leonina pool of Lauritzen-Cool, while the remaining four stayed on with NYK-Star for another year.

The Dutch owner Vroon b.v. with 10 ships joined the Sun Group and three other owners, to form the United Reefers pool and has shown an interest in the Amer Shipping fleet (a member of the Leonina pool) which was put under court order in mid-March in the U.S. Vroon is trying to take control by buying a majority share with an American investment fund. United Reefers regroups five owners and controls a fleet of 24 ships of 185,000 to 535,000 cu ft.

Seatrade and Nissui Shipping have joined together in the Pacific for small size ships, creating Tokyo Reefer chartering, a mini pool which controls 15 ships.

In May a new Japanese company, Fresh Carriers Company (FCC) took over the management of Nissui's big ships chartered to Dole and on other fruit contracts.

We should also mention the start-up of a new container service Australia / New Zealand to West and East Coast U.S. by Maersk-Sealand. One of the first clients of this new service was the NZ Dairy Board who represents on its own 360,000 tons for U.S. destination.

With effect from October 1st 2001 in New Zealand, Enza no longer had the monopoly of apple transport and exports and thus had to face other organisations which have stepped forward. Exports of kiwis from the southern hemisphere have remained stable (about 92 million trays), with an increase in Chilean production compensating for the drop in New Zealand's. This fruit is facing increased competition from southern Europe producers like Italy and France who now supply their own markets.

An agreement to finally end the banana dispute was reached in April between OMC and the EU. New regulations should come into force from December 31 2001, to allow the U.S. to lift their sanctions. In the first stage the system of import licences will continue up until 2006 and will be calculated on the basis of historical data with a reference period of 1994 to 1996 which should favour a group like Chiquita much more than Dole or Fyffes. The quota for the ACP countries will be reduced by 100,000 tons, which Europe will import from Ecuador or Central America with 83 % of licences being allocated to traditional importers. With effect from 2006 imports of bananas will be based on tariffs according to the country of origin.

At the end of August after a week of intense conflict, the strike of Ecuadorian banana producers ended with the creation of a fund guaranteeing a production price.

The production of Argentinean apples and pears exceeded two million tons of which 488,000 tons were exported, and citrus fruit production reached 2.63 million tons. Export levels have increased towards Europe and Russia, and the U.S. has re-opened its market to citrus fruit.

Banana production in Honduras has regained its exports volumes before hurricane Mitch.

A significant reduction in banana's produced in Costa Rica and Equador was felt at the beginning of the year due to climatic conditions, which meant that finally the price levels improved in the North American and European markets, after a long crisis period due essentially to an overproduction rather than a drop in demand.

In Morocco following a long dry spell, exports of citrus fruit and potatoes were some 30 % lower or roughly 360,000 tons.

The Spanish clementine campaign into the United-States was highly satisfactory (some 80,000 tons from November to February). However this year the campaign came to a sudden halt in December with the discovery of a dead fly in a cardboard box (with some 35,000 pallets in transit and on board ships in mid-December 2001).

In South Africa, citrus fruit production was about 1.5 million tons of which 800,000 tons exported mainly to Europe. The rand devaluation help stimulate exports, which also took advantage of the drop in Spanish production.

Apple harvests in Italy and France suffered a 10 % drop after the spring frosts and some 20 % in the state of Washington (USA).

Deliveries of newbuildings has again dropped considerably; four ships with about 1.3 million cu ft were delivered in 2001, against 13 with about 6.3 million cubic feet in 2000. They are the lowest figures seen since 1959.

Only three new units will be delivered in 2002, representing a total capacity of some 1.2 million cu ft.

It is surprising to find that despite the market weakness, the pace of ships being withdrawn (scrapped or for other reasons like total loss or conversion) has noticeably slowed down in number with only 16 ships being demolished (as against 27 in 2000), which goes against logic. In terms of capacity the volume dropped in the same proportional order, with the 16 ships totalling 5.3 million cu ft (compared to 9.5 million cu ft in 2000).

The figures given above are based on the refrigerated capacity in the reefer ship's hold. They should be interpreted by taking into account the increased capacity of refrigerated containers on delivered new units, both on reefer ships as well as containerships.

In practice we have seen in 2001 an increase of about 134 million cu ft in global refrigerated capacity, equal to nearly a third of the total capacity of refrigerated fleet.

Theoretically, the orderbook of containerships makes it possible to envisage the