Page 21: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2026)

REEFERSHIPS

Cool Express, also bene? cially owned day’s modus operandi whereby ? eet introduction of its entire reefer ? eet. by Nissen Kaiun. She was followed a development is nurtured through Thus came into being NYKLauritzen- year later by Cool Explorer and subse- business relationships involving Japa- Cool, presaging a period which saw quently by Cool Eagle in 2021. The nese shipowners and investors. the Japanese major as part owner and ? nal pair, Cool Emerald and Cool Cool Carriers has Swedish roots, then full owner.

Elegance, were brought into commis- being the 1984 encapsulation of the Lauritzen pulled out of the reefer sion during 2025. Salen organization’s longstanding sector in 2007, resulting in the name

The Cool Express quintet is widely reefership interests. The company has change of the follow-on entity as regarded as the state-of-the-art em- since been central to various stages of NYKCool. Seven years later, NYK bodiment of the classical reefer ves- industry consolidation, ? rst through also decided to quit the pure reefer- sel, maximizing operational ef? ciency, a merger with the reefer division of ship segment, whereupon the surviv- load volume, and trading agility. The Denmark’s Lauritzen Group, and ing company reverted to its former design brings record scale to the con- subsequently through NYK Group’s name, Cool Carriers. cept and practice of delivering fast, direct service to shippers of perishable

Working a fruit cargo in produce, ensuring precise cargo con- the tweendeck-? tted dition control throughout the long holds of a reefership. sea link in the ‘cold chain’.

Laid out with ? ve holds divided by tweendecks to create 18 cargo com- partments, the 180-metre Cool Ex- press class melds a multi-deck capa- bility for transportation of palletized goods requiring in-transit tempera- tures down to minus 30degC, with the added versatility afforded by slots for 607 TEU or 400 FEU containers, including up to 342 refrigerated units of 40ft. Weatherdeck-borne contain- ers are securely cradled within a lattice of lashing bridges.

The unique volume of the breed is such that each ship can load around

Image credit: Cool Carriers 14,000 high-cube pallets—8,000 in the holds, and 6,000 in containers on deck.

Approximately 800 autos can be shipped on back hauls or ballast legs, and self-reliance at loading points and in port operations generally is con- ferred by ? ve 40-tonne deck cranes.

Cool Carriers’ legacy embraces a number of the foremost names associ- ated with reefer shipping in past years.

It provides the underbed of experience and tradition that continues to move the company forward, with resilience and pragmatism also expressed in to- www.marinelink.com 21

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