Cargo containers taking goods over long distances often arrive in damaged condition, mostly due to moisture ingression. Most cases of moisture damage are far less severe – peeling labels, spotted surfaces, or soggy packaging-but is nonetheless unacceptable. Every year thousands of shipments arrive damaged, causing a loss of millions of dollars due to decreased quality of the product and additional costs for handling and administration.
Moisture damage occurs due to increased humidity that causes mold, corrosion, rust, fungus and mildew in the products during transportation. Thousands of cargoes in shipping containers are damaged by moisture problems. Their metal parts are rusted, cardboard boxes become mouldy and wet, and food commodities are found to be unfit for consumption on arrival.
While containers are an efficient and economical method of transporting almost any kind of cargo, placing cargo inside a steel box carries the risk of moisture damage resulting from condensation. Condensation on the ceilings and walls of a container is known as “container rain”. Many factors affect condensation and cause potential damage to cargo, and condensation happens to various degrees depending on climatic conditions and temperature fluctuations.
Container condensation occurs when the skin of the container is cooled to a temperature below the “dewpoint” of the air inside the container, causing water droplets to form on the inside walls and roof, which may run down the walls or “rain” onto the top of the cargo.
To address this problem of moisture damage, container desiccant ‘Cargo Dry Pak’ is the best to use for shipping containers as it is a mixture of clay desiccant and calcium chloride that control humidity inside the container by continuously absorbing the moisture from the enclosed air and are designed to hold the moisture and not release it back into the container’s climate. Desiccants based on calcium chloride have a vigorous absorption rate over a large temperature range, and they are very good absorbers.
Cargo Dry Pak is supplied by the global suppliers of container desiccants ‘Sorbead India’. These desiccants are designed to adsorb 100% moisture of its density and can provide complete moisture protection for more than 50 days. One should always choose the desiccants after considering shipping routes, transit time, humidity and temperature levels, and the nature of your cargo.
