The World’s Biggest Mobile Fridge Sailed in Paris

The Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Versailles, Moulin Rouge, those are the places to visit in Paris. In 2009, the city of love also became famous of a creative marketing campaign.

The Korean electronics company LG set up a creative marketing campaign for their ecological fridge. The company, one of South Korea’s largest chaebols, turned a 70 meter container ship into the world’s biggest fridge that sailed up the Seine from Le Havre to Paris between June 22 and June 25. The vessel transported cooking ingredients that the famous 3-star Michelin chef Alain Passard cooked for visiting journalists.

LG’s ecological fridge uses a patented “Linear Compressor” technology that is to lower energy consumption up to 20 percent compared to other conventional fridges. The new fridge technology has also received an A+ rating from the EU.

Refrigerated containers, or reefer containers, are mainly used for shipping temperature sensitive products even with extremely long distances. Reefer container technology enabled for instance the shipping of Camel Milk from the United Arab Emirates to Europe. Please, read the whole story here.

As businesses are getting more aware of the benefits of refrigerated containers, new uses for them are emerging. Reefer containers are basically tools that combine mobility and cold chain. One can set up a temperature sensitive business and still vary its location. For example, Atlanta’s Botanical Garden used a refrigerated container to set up a mobile bio-secure research laboratory for their research  on frogs in 2011. Reefer containers are also convenient in, say, open-air events where organizers need to keep their heavy loads of Red Bulls and Coca-Colas chilled all the time.

Like LG, Shanghai Metal Corporation‘s reefer containers also use environmentally friendly and energy efficient technology that generate a really low CO2 footprint. We also apply high standards in their quality assurance. To learn more about our refrigerated containers, please visit our website. Please also follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original stories: Container Technology Inc., SlipperyBrick.com, Gcaptain.com, Btwins.net, Stickboydaily.com,

Ethiopia; Export Extraordinaire

Although it is the second most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia has the lowest ratio of merchandise exports to GDP in the world. Historically, Ethiopian industry has been unable to develop into a world player, held back by a variety of economic problems. This is now changing however, as a World Bank report published this week reports positive statistics.

Ethiopia’s development model is partly inspired by the East Asian experience that realised high economic growth through the development of new export sectors and government-led development investments. Benefiting from a global commodities price windfall in the 2000s, Ethiopian exports grew at one of the highest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. In tandem, GDP grew 9.7% in 2012/13.

According to this study, a large part of this comes from the comparative advantage Ethiopia possesses in over 80 goods and services in Africa. Many of these, such as horticultural goods, sesame seeds, soy beans and footwear, have seen considerable export growth over the last year. Ethiopia’s nascent manufacturing industries are also beginning to grow rapidly from a low base, after being positively affected by changes in the global trade regime and
the introduction of new trade preferences.

Exports and imports of goods and services as a share of GDP increased from 37.5 percent in 2001/02 to 48.7 percent in
2011/12. This figure remains low, though, considering the projected growth curve, so it is safe to assume that it can only go up from here. The major investor in Ethiopia today is China,  which which the value of trade topped $200bn last year.

Indeed, China is completing changing the dynamics of trade within the entire region. Premier Li toured 4 major East African nations last year, where he renewed an offer of $20bn in loans to Africa between 2013 and 2015. In Ethiopia, Chinese firms have invested heavily in recent years with their worth swelling well over $1bn in 2014, according to official figures. Beijing is also a key partner in Ethiopia’s bid to expand infrastructure such as roads, railways and telecom services.

The growth of Ethiopia thus, looks to signal a change in global trade patterns, with a new axis of development avoiding Western nations altogether. Rarely has such growth been sustained, yet the future looks bright for now, particularly in light of the slow and asymmetric recovery in the EU & US. The core of this growth will require steel, particularly the construction industry, which accounted for 25% of all economic activity in China over the last 10 years. Chinese steel firms eager to develop relations with this part of the world to fulfill this promise mutual growth.

For more information about SMC, follow us on twitter @Shanghai_Metal

Lloyd P.//SMC Editor

 

 

 

The Return of Protectionism In Steel

The Return of Protectionism In Steel

The EU has started to reintroduce tariffs into the Steel industry in the last few weeks following allegations of dumping from foreign competitors. Steel wire already saw the imposition of a heavy 24% duty in May, whilst an investigation is now under way on imports of Stainless Steel from China and Taiwan.

These developments mark the return of tensions that had been calmed 5 years ago, when the EU decided against imposing trade sanctions on China. They were, at the time, responding to allegations of dumping in the cold-rolled flat steel products industry from Eurofer. This Brussels-based representative body for the European steel industry now claim that China and Taiwan are operating at a 20% dumping margin in the 14% of the market they control.

 

The EU market, worth US$8 billion, remains the world’s largest, despite a 2.7% fall in consumption reported in the year 2013. Meanwhile, the Chinese market is projected to grow over 25% in the next decade. The question that remains is whether the upcoming years will be characterised by worsening or improving relations in EU-China steel trade.

Objectively, consumers in both nations would benefit from a return to the WTO standards of fair trade. The Chinese steel industry, constantly consolidating and improving its product range and quality, have a potentially large role to play in dampening EU inflation. Likewise, China can benefit from the technological innovation and expertise of European firms.

Sources: Eurofer, World Steel Dynamics, Bloomberg.

Lloyd P.//SMC Editor