End-to-end supply chain, ports, terminals, shipping lines, intelligent technologies, and digitalization.
Here are some top facts you didn’t know about shipping containers. There is a lot to discover when it comes to shipping containers.
How Many Shipping Containers are in the World?
You see shipping containers everywhere. Shipping containers are used to ship goods all across the globe. They are used for import and export purposes.
There were around 530 million shipping containers around the world in 2010, and approximately 23 million containers are working and shipping goods all around the world. In total, they make around 200 million trips a year.
No Records of Shipping Containers
Well, we all know that there are millions of shipping containers worldwide, but no one is responsible for calculating the actual amount of containers. This means that no one owns or supervises these shipping containers. However, most container owners worldwide don’t want to expose the exact figures about the size of the container fleets.
Similarly, this goes for the car industry where calculating the number of cars produced is impossible. It is tough to evaluate scrap cars and actual cars on the road.
The same problem arises when we talk about the shipping industry. Many factories in the Far East are producing containers rapidly, and evaluating the exact number seems impossible. Most of these containers are made in China.
As soon as the shipping containers are put onto a fleet, this question becomes more complex. These fleet owners do not show the exact amount of containers, but they will give a TEU fleet size.
One 20 ft. container makes one TEU. So, 2/3rd of shipping containers will make 40 ft containers. If we talk about non-standard size containers, then a 30 ft container carries small shipments. However, 10 ft containers are not used to transport goods across the globe.
The industry research on shipments is not publicly available. The best way to analyze the actual amount of containers is to work with published market numbers and figures.
Who Owns All the Shipping Containers
Malcolm Maclean invented the first ship container in 1956 to bring a revolution in break-bulk handling.
Most of these shipping containers are used to transport goods from one place to another. However, these shipping containers are owned by leasing companies or the shipping line.
The shipping lines are the organizations that run the container ships. Some own these containers, while others rent them out whenever they need to import or export goods.
However, some of the businesses lease these containers too.
Active Shipping Containers – In-Service!
Shipping containers that are currently being used are called in service. These shipping containers carry freight throughout the globe.
Now, the question arises, how many shipping containers are in service? As discussed earlier, the companies do not disclose their data, and significant investments are being made to increase the manufacturing of shipping containers.
Textainer was one of the greatest leaser’s of these shipping containers in the market before the TAL and Triton merger. However, both these companies do share some data sources.
Ex- Active Shipping Containers
The ex-active shipping containers are usually given and sold to the farmers and people who need to store things in bulk quantities. But, we don’t have an exact figure for these ex-serving shipping containers.
But, we can give a quick estimate here:
A used or ex-serving shipping container is sold after a service of 12-14 years. Some go for a long time, while others are not even repairable.
However, if there were 23 million shipping containers active last year, by the end of 8-9* years, we will have around 14 million ex-shipping containers, which is too many. Shipping containers usually last for 8-9 years, but if they are adequately maintained, they can last up to 20 years.
*Average lifespan of a shipping container estimated.
New Shipping Containers
The last group of shipping containers are the brand new ones that are not in service.
Some business owners like to buy a new container from China, which also carries freight for one-time use. In this way, the transportation cost reduces, and these containers are called one-trip containers.
These containers work best when it comes to storing goods for a long-time, and they will be only used once. This will work perfectly as an ex-shipping container.
We can conclude that 300,000 shipping containers enter the new market each year by carrying out all estimates.
If shipping containers are taken care of with regular maintenance, they can last for a total of 20 years.
Busiest Port in the World
Did you know? Shanghai is one of the busiest ports in the world. It carried around 33 Million TEU containers in 2013. Approximately 97% of all shipping containers are manufactured in China. This is due to a lower labor rate in the country and the that much of the world’s products are produced in China.
How Many Shipping Containers are Lost at Sea?
Many containers are lost each year, and these lost containers are around 675 each year.
This contributes to shipping containers and their increasing number. Yes, shipping containers are necessary because they are a perfect source of storing all goods and shipping them all across the globe.
We have also witnessed shipping containers standing still in the pandemic, and we don’t want to see a similar situation again. The best way to reduce the prices of goods is to keep the shipping containers rolling around the world so that the costs remain constant and the businesses don’t face any loss.
Bottom Line!
So, after going through all the facts, we can estimate that there are 23 Million in-service shipping containers, 14 Million ex-service shipping containers, 6 Million new shipping containers, however, we cannot be accurate either about these numbers since a figure of 530 million shipping containers was produced in 2010.
Moreover, these numbers will not remain the same forever, and these are changing at an accelerating pace. China is the top producer of shipping containers, and the numbers will continue to grow each year.