An homage to the humble shipping container on www.theatlantic.com speaks of the impact of these great colourful boxes on the economy.
Craig Martin writes;
“…without the container and deindustrialization, the availability of cheap imports from China and other emerging economies would not have been possible.”
He goes on to state that the simple 20 and 40 feet shipping containers in 2011, were present on nearly 5,000 containers ships globally. That’s roughy 14 million containers.
“At the world’s ports, rows of stacks of shipping containers in an array of colors create a rich metallic vibrancy. On construction sites they are used as storage boxes. They can be seen lying prone and rusting in abandoned plots. They perch on the back of trucks speeding down the motorway. On flatbed cars they trundle through railway stations, box upon box upon box.”
We are guilty of singing the praises of shipping containers all too often here at JP Containers, but it is not difficult to see why when incidents such as that on January 18, 2007 occurred. A container ship was beached off the south coast of England where 50 of the 2,318 shipping containers on board were washed up, revealing the contents of cars, nappies, dog food and expensive perfume. The article goes on to state;
“This surreal juxtaposition of goods that had previously been neatly hidden behind metal shrouds sparked a momentary media interest in the logistics of how these products arrive in our retail spaces.”
Indeed, it opened our eyes to the wonders of the shipping container and the whole shipping industry, without which we would live in a much different world. To read the full article click here.