10 Amazing Facts About Shipping Containers

Without the humble shipping container, where would we all be? These metal rectangular boxes house our most prized commodities as they travel thousands of miles to reach our households. From coffee to electronics and pharmaceuticals to clothing, it’s the container that makes logistics and global shipping possible.

How much do you know about the shipping container? Versatile, durable and efficient, let’s take a moment to dedicate a blog post to shipping containers with 10 amazing facts that will have you nodding your head in wonder and admiration.

1. Just how active are shipping containers? There are around 17 million currently in circulation around the world with 5 million of those active.

2. A shipping container will make an estimated 200 million trips in its lifetime!

3. The Port of Shanghai is the busiest port in the world. In 2013 it handled over 33 million containers.

4. This is cool: If you laid every container in the world end to end to create a “container chain” so to speak, it would wrap around the earth two times!

5. In 1956 the first modern day intermodal shipping container was designed by Malcolm McLean. It was only 8 ft high. Now, shipping containers can be 40 ft.

6. You’ll be blown away by how much cargo can fit in one 40 ft container. Let’s take shoe boxes for example. It’s possible to squeeze 8,000 shoe boxes in one of these bad boys!

7. Container City is a city in Mexico built entirely from shipping containers. The city is 48,000 sq ft., comprised of restaurants, hotels, museums and apartments all constructed from containers.

8. Shipping containers have been the inspiration of modern architects for the past decade. People have used them for storage space, transformed them into businesses, workshops and even tiny homes to live in.

9. 97% of shipping containers are manufactured in China, and they are incredibly strong. If regularly maintained a container will last 20 years.

10. With all of those shipping containers making their way around the world, it’s inevitable that some will get lost. In fact, it’s estimated that around 612 are lost at sea each year.

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