A further 2.7 million Euro investment has been made in the P&O Ferrymasters fleet with an order for 600 45ft palletwide (PW) High Cube containers to meet a predicted growth in volume of 14 per cent in 2008.
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 100m³ capacity (33 Euro pallet/26 ISO pallet capacity).
Of the 600 on order with leading Dutch intermodal container supplier Unit45, 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.
"This latest investment means that 80 per cent of our fleet is no more than three years old resulting in a consistent and extremely reliable service for our customers which makes good business sense for everyone."
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 year.
This fleet investment follows hot on the heels of 610 new trailers which were introduced to expand the P&O Ferrymasters fleet in 2007.
P&O Ferrymasters is part of P&O Ferries, which is owned by Dubai World. P&O Ferrymasters employs 900 people at 25 strategic locations across nine European countries.