March 04: shipping containers

Malcolm McLean who began as a truck driver in North Carolina before developing a very successful trucking company, invented the idea of the shipping container in the 1930%u2019s. He came up with the idea of using the body from a tractor trailer and placing it fully loaded onto a ship or rail car, saving the hassle of unloading and reloading crates from his trucks. This idea became the basis of the Sea-Land company, the first shipping company to utilize cargo containers. His simple invention revolutionized global trade, by increasing the efficiency and ease of shipping, and creating a new standard and interchangeable unit for trade which could be easily transported by ship, truck or rail, without being unloaded..

(Via Polar Inertia: journal of nomadic and popular culture.)

Today, approximately 90% of cargo moves by container, sometimes stacked up to 12 units high on transport ships. Over 100 million containers per year are now moved between the world's ports in over 5,000 container ships, constituting a critical component of the global trade.

Last year the Port of Long Beach alone handled 4.6 million twenty foot containers of cargo and it is expected that by 2020 the port will be handling 12-16 million units.

The rise of trade between the U.S. and Asia is attributed to the reductions in cost and shipping time that containerization has made possible. For example standard shipments from Hong Kong to New York took approximately 50 days in 1970 and today takes only 17 days.

An ISO standard (International Organization for Standardization) 20 foot freight container has inside dimensions of 19‘5“ (length) by 7’8” (wide) by 7'9.5" (high) The container itself weighs 4189 pounds, and has a dry capacity of 48,721 pounds, and a volume of 1,165 cubic feet.

A standard new 20ft dry freight container costs US$1,350 and a 20ft refrigerated container $14,000.

The ISO standard shipping containers are designed to make vertical contact with eachother through corner fittings so when stacked all vertical load is carried through the corners rather than the walls of the container.
The number of containers which can be stacked is limited by the strength of the corner posts. The ISO standard tests the containers to a load of 86,400kg (190,486lbs) or the equivalent of eight containers of weight. Higher strength corner fittings can allow stacking up to 12 units high.

It is the standardization of container sizes and corner fittings by the International Organization for Standardization that was essential to the free interchange of containers and the dominance of the freight container in international trade. This standardization became possible when Malcolm McLean provided to ISO a royalty free license, allowing use of his patented designs on shipping container fittings, in the creation of an international standard which allowed other shipping companies and countries to establish a single systems of transport.

related links:
cargo systems industry magazine

  [PORT OF LOS ANGELES HISTORY](http://www.laporthistory.org/level4/port_history/port_trend2.html)

books for additional information:

  [the colombo bay](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/074320073X/qid=1078602833/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1_xs_stripbooks_i1_xgl14/002-8195857-8608003?v=glance&s=books) by richard pollak