A further Euro 2.7m (US$3.96m) investment has been made in the P&O Ferrymasters fleet with an order for 600 x 45ft palletwide PW) High Cube containers to meet a predicted growth in volume of 14% in 2008.

P&O Ferrymasters orders 600 new High Cube containers

The investment is in line with the company’s ongoing strategy to standardise the fleet and brings the total number of 45ft PW containers to 2,400 units. The containers have a 100cu m capacity (33 Euro pallet/26 ISO pallet capacity).

Of the 600 on order with Unit45 the Dutch intermodal container supplier, 350 will be targeted at the volume growth business. A further 250 will directly replace older vehicles.

Bart Verbeke, Intermodal Director for P&O Ferrymasters, said: “There is a continuing growth in intermodal activity in existing core markets across Europe and also emerging markets including Poland and Russia. This investment puts P&O Ferrymasters in pole position when it comes to meeting the business and environmental demands of customers in this expanding area of logistics (and) this latest investment means that 80% of our fleet is no more than three years old.”

Production of the units begins in China in February and the first containers will join the fleet in the summer with all 600 expected to be fully operational by the end of this