How a Steel Box Changed the World: A Brief History of Shipping

Container

shipping

moved 95% of all manufactured goods

world

wide in 2017. More than four trillion dollars worth of goods were shipped across the oceans. It is an industry that supports the global economy, but it was not always as large or as efficient as it is today. The idea of ​​maritime transportation began in the 3rd century BC. C., when merchants realized that sending products abroad was cheaper and faster than by land. At first, goods were loaded onto ships and into sacks, barrels and wooden boxes, with dozens of dockworkers squeezing them onto the decks or into tight spaces below. Ships often spent more time in port than at sea, and not much

changed

until 1956.

That's when American trucker Malcolm McLane stacked 58 metal boxes on a ship going from New Jersey to Houston. This idea completely revolutionized the industry. Containers not only protected products but also when ships docked at ports, truck beds and freight trains could take them away without having to repackage them. A flurry of innovations followed and container sizes were standardized in 1966. The McCormack Lions began the first transatlantic container service and then, in 1968, one of the first modern container ships came ashore. By water, the Japanese motto Hakone transported 752 20-foot containers using a standard still used today. Cargo could now be moved from purpose-built vessels to railways and roads in massive volumes, reducing transportation costs by at least 75%, leading to the rise of global

shipping

.

Giants like Danish Smurfs Klein Francis CMA CGM and China's Costco in the 1980s around 90% of manufactured goods were transported in containers, from designer dresses and food to household items, electronics and heavy machinery. Globalization exploded as ships moved Asian products to the west and back again making stops. In dozens of ports along the way, the Panama and Suez canals were recently widened, allowing larger ships in greater numbers to pass through, but it hasn't all been smooth sailing, the industry has been plagued by too many ships. in the water, which has sparked a series of price wars. which plunged many operators into the red and completely sunk others, this sparked a wave of consolidation that saw the top 20 ocean carriers shrink to 11, a number that is expected to further decline ocean shipping has also been the subject of criticism from governments and environmentalists who say it is responsible.

Responsible for about a quarter of the

world

's nitrogen oxide pollution, operators are shifting to cleaner fuels like natural gas in response. Today, the industry continues to boom. The container ships are as tall as the Empire State Building when placed upright and can carry more than 20,000 boxes each per container. can hold 10,000 iPads at a cost of five cents each from Shanghai to Hamburg, the average TV arriving in the US from China costs less than $2 to ship. The most recent growth has been in refrigerated shipping of fresh produce, food and flowers that were previously only transported by air, now shipped in refrigerated boxes with satellite tracking that keep them fresh.

Bananas can last up to 50 days. So what does the future hold for the battery-powered unmanned giants that can move 50,000 containers and distributed global cargo through blockchain technology that will eliminate paperwork and further reduce costs? Later this year, the first Tesla of the Seas will hit the water in a Norwegian fjord transporting fertilizer from a production site to an export port; the ship will replace thousands of truck routes through populated areas