As a universal and standardised freight receptacle, the container has revolutionised international transport. Since then, it has stood for the economical and effective storage of goods. It is primarily used in shipping.

Malcolm McLean’s (1913-2001) idea was as simple as it was ingenious: the American lorry driver had noticed that loading and unloading in the port took an enormous amount of time. This was a thorn in his side, as was the fact that port employees regularly scurried around like ants to hoist boxes, sacks, crates and barrels onto the 5,000-tonne ship. One day, as McLean stood at the harbour and let his mind wander, he had a flash of inspiration: what was needed was a container that could be transported from the lorry directly onto the ship without having to laboriously unpack all its contents.

In 1956, McLean’s ieda – the first container – was ready and the specially converted freighter IDEAL X set off on its first container voyage from Newark, New Jersey, to Houston, Texas. Shortly afterwards, McLean founded the transport company ‘Sea-Land Corporation’ and became the first transatlantic liner service between the USA and Europe. Always on board: his standardised containers. Since then, colourful steel boxes have been travelling all over the world – not only by ship, but also by train and truck.

The great advantage of the ‘Lego bricks’ is that they can be unloaded and stacked. As handling between the various modes of transport is mechanised thanks to cranes and forklift trucks, there is no need for time-consuming unpacking and repacking, and port charges for storage and stowing are also eliminated. The use of containers has significantly reduced transport costs. The larger the container ship, the lower the transport costs

Hamburg as a gateway to the world

In 1968, the 210-metre-long ship ‘American Lancer’ with 1,200 loaded containers was the first container ship to dock in the Port of Hamburg, heralding a new era in the Hanseatic city. In the years and decades that followed, container shipping was continuously expanded around the globe. Numerous ports expanded their facilities with special cranes and storage areas and built railway systems. Ships were also modified and equipped to meet the needs of container shipping.

50 years after the landing of the ‘American Lancer’, Hamburg welcomed its largest container ship to date, the 400 metre long and 59 metre wide ‘Antoine de Saint Exupéry’, whose loading capacity is designed for more than 20,000 standard containers.

Then as now, the Hanseatic city was considered the gateway to the world. With a share of nine million standard containers (TEU – Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit) per year, the Port of Hamburg is one of the most important goods hubs for world trade in Europe. Since 2000, annual throughput has risen to more than 620 million standard containers. If you were to line them all up in a row, that would be 94 circumnavigations of the globe.

Containerisation as a driver of globalisation

Carlos Jahn, Director of the Institute for Maritime Logistics at Hamburg University of Technology and the Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services, the container is an ‘all-purpose means of transport’ for transporting goods via intermodal transport systems such as air, water, road or rail: ‘Hardly anything has quickened globalisation as much as containers.’ He is not alone with this opinion. Various other experts also consider containerised transport to be a revolutionary invention, without which global trade as we know it could never have developed.

The 20-foot container unit (TEU) established itself early on as an internationally standardised unit of measurement and comparison. The footprint of a container is 8‘(2.438 metres) x 20’ (6.096 metres), 30‘(9.144), 35’ (10.668 metres), 40‘ (12.192 metres) or 45’ (13.716 metres). There are also 40-foot containers, which are equivalent to 2 TEU, as well as standardised special containers. Thermal containers are primarily used to store perishable products such as fruit and vegetables, which require thermal insulation. Refrigerated-only containers, on the other hand, are used for fish and meat. While liquefied oxygen and other gases are transported in gas containers, liquid bulk goods are transported and stored in liquid containers.

The number makes the difference

For better organisation and security, each container has an individual four-digit capital letter and six-digit numeric code as well as a control number that is assigned only once worldwide. The container number can be used to identify various information such as country of origin, owner and size. This means that every single one can be identified anywhere in the world and its position on a ship or in a harbour can be determined. In addition, containers are now also equipped with satellite navigation.

The advantages of container transport are obvious: thanks to the rapid unloading of ship cargo – i.e. the high handling speed – it scores highly in terms of efficiency. The same also applies to storage: containers are stackable. The space required can therefore be calculated precisely. As a result, significantly less floor space is used – and money is saved.

However, there is also a catch: the stowage capacity cannot always be optimally utilised. This is because Euro pallets are widely used in European goods transport. Due to this standard European dimension, Euro pallets are not always used – and if they are, a lot of space is wasted in a container. The reason: Euro pallets cannot be stowed side by side in a container. Whether this situation will change in the future is written in the shipping industry’s stars. Perhaps someone like Malcolm McLean will come along and revolutionise international transport once again with a flash of inspiration.

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