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A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a
cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...
that carries all of its load in truck-size
intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, or a freight container, (or simply "container") is a large metal crate designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode ...
s, in a technique called
containerization Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers, or International Organization for Standardization, ISO containers). Containerization, also referred as container stuf ...
. Container ships are a common means of commercial
intermodal freight transport Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing ...
and now carry most seagoing non-bulk cargo. Container ship capacity is measured in
twenty-foot equivalent unit The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is a general unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box tha ...
s (TEU). Typical loads are a mix of 20-foot (1-TEU) and 40-foot (2-TEU) ISO-standard containers, with the latter predominant. Today, about 90% of non-
bulk cargo Bulk cargo is Product (business), product cargo that is transported packaging, unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate (as a mass of relatively small solids) form, ...
worldwide is transported by container ships, the largest of which, from 2023 onward, can carry over 24,000 TEU.


History

There are two main types of dry cargo:
bulk cargo Bulk cargo is Product (business), product cargo that is transported packaging, unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate (as a mass of relatively small solids) form, ...
and
break bulk cargo In shipping, break-bulk, breakbulk, or break bulk cargo, also called general cargo, are goods that are stowed on board ships in individually counted units. Traditionally, the large numbers of items are recorded on distinct bill of lading, bil ...
. Bulk cargoes, like grain or coal, are transported unpackaged in the hull of the ship, generally in large volume. Break-bulk cargoes, in contrast, are transported in packages, and are generally manufactured goods. Before the advent of containerization in the 1950s, break-bulk items required manual loading, lashing, unlashing and unloading from the ship one piece at a time. This stevedoring process became more efficient by grouping cargo into containers, of cargo, or up to about , is moved at once and each container is secured to the ship once in a standardized way. Containerization has increased the efficiency of moving traditional break-bulk cargoes significantly, reducing shipping time by 84% and costs by 35%. In 2001, more than 90% of world trade in non-bulk goods was transported in ISO containers. In 2009, almost one quarter of the world's dry cargo was shipped by container, an estimated 125 million TEU or 1.19 billion tonnes worth of cargo.UNCTAD, 2010, p. 84. The first ships designed to carry standardized load units were used in the late 18th century in England. In 1766 James Brindley designed the box boat "Starvationer" with 10 wooden containers, to transport coal from Worsley Delph to Manchester via the
Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...
. Before the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the first container ships were used to carry the baggage of the luxury passenger train from London to Paris ( Southern Railway's Golden Arrow / La Flèche d'Or). These containers were loaded in London or Paris, and carried to ports of Dover or Calais on flat cars. In February 1931, the first container ship in the world was launched; the '' Autocarrier'', owned by the Southern Railway. It had 21 slots for containers of Southern Railway. , url= http://www.faktaomfartyg.se/autocarrier_1931_b_1.htm The earliest container ships after the Second World War were converted oil tankers, built up from surplus T2 tankers after World War II. In 1951, the first purpose-built container vessels began operating in
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
, and between
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
and
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
. The first commercially successful container ship was , a T2 tanker, owned by Malcom McLean, which carried 58 metal containers between
Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...
and
Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, on its first voyage.Meurn, 2004, pp. 1–3. In 1955, McLean built his company, McLean Trucking into one of the United States' biggest freighter fleets. In 1955, he purchased the small Pan Atlantic Steamship Company from Waterman Steamship and adapted its ships to carry cargo in large uniform metal containers.Cudahy, 2004, p. 19. On April 26, 1956, the first of these rebuilt container vessels, ''Ideal X'', left the Port Newark in New Jersey and a new revolution in modern shipping resulted.Cudahy, 2004, p. 29. In the 1950s, a new standardized steel
Intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, or a freight container, (or simply "container") is a large metal crate designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode ...
based on specifications from the
United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...
began to revolutionize freight transportation. The White Pass & Yukon Route railway acquired the world's first purpose built container ship, the ''Clifford J. Rogers'', built in 1955, and introduced containers to its railway in 1956. MV ''Kooringa'' was the world's first fully cellular, purpose-built container ship. and was built by Australian company Associated Steamships, a partnership formed by the 1964 merger of the Adelaide Steamship Company with McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co, then commissioned in May 1964. Container ships were designed to accommodate intermodal transport of goods, and eliminated requirements for the individual hatches, holds and other dividers of traditional
cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...
s. The hull of a typical container ship is similar to an airport hangar, or a huge warehouse, which is divided into individual holding cells, using vertical guide rails. The ship's cells are designed to hold cargo containers, which are typically constructed of steel, though sometimes of aluminum, fiberglass or plywood, and designed for intermodal transfers between ship and
train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...
,
truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...
or semi-trailer. Shipping containers are categorized by type, size and function. Today, about 90% of non-
bulk cargo Bulk cargo is Product (business), product cargo that is transported packaging, unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate (as a mass of relatively small solids) form, ...
worldwide is transported by container by about 50,000 container ships. Modern container ships can carry over 24,000 TEU. The largest container ships measure about in length, and carry loads equal to the cargo-carrying capacity of sixteen to seventeen pre-World War II freighter ships.


Architecture

There are several key points in the design of modern container ships. The hull, similar to that of bulk carriers and general cargo ships, is built around a strong
keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...
.Hayler & Keever, 2004, p. 15-2. Into this frame is set one or more below-deck cargo holds, numerous tanks, and the engine room. The holds are topped by hatch covers, onto which more containers can be stacked. Many container ships have cargo cranes installed on them, and some have specialized systems for securing containers on board. The hull of a modern cargo ship is a complex arrangement of steel plates and strengthening beams. Resembling ribs, and fastened at right angles to the keel, are the ship's frames. The ship's main deck, the metal platework that covers the top of the hull framework, is supported by beams that are attached to the tops of the frames and run the full breadth of the ship. The beams not only support the deck, but along with the deck, frames, and transverse bulkheads, strengthen and reinforce the shell. Another feature of recent hulls is a set of double-bottom tanks, which provide a second watertight shell that runs most of the length of a ship.Hayler & Keever, 2004, p. 15-3. The double-bottoms generally hold liquids such as fuel oil, ballast water or fresh water. A ship's engine room houses its main engines and auxiliary machinery such as the fresh water and sewage systems, electrical generators, fire pumps, and air conditioners. In most new ships, the engine room is located in the aft portion.


Size categories

Container ships are distinguished into 7 major size categories: small feeder, feeder, feedermax, Panamax, Post-Panamax, Neopanamax and ultra-large. As of December 2012, there were 161 container ships in the VLCS class (Very Large Container Ships, more than 10,000 TEU), and 51 ports in the world can accommodate them. The size of a Panamax vessel is limited by the original Panama canal's lock chambers, which can accommodate ships with a beam of up to 32.31 m, a length overall of up to 294.13 m, and a draft of up to 12.04 m. The Post-Panamax category has historically been used to describe ships with a moulded breadth over 32.31 m,UNCTAD, 2010, p. xiii. however the Panama Canal expansion project has caused some changes in terminology. The Neopanamax category is based on the maximum vessel size that is able to transit a new third set of locks, which opened in June 2016. The third set of locks were built to accommodate a container ship with a
length overall Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and is also ...
of , a maximum beam (width) of , and tropical fresh-water draft of .Autoridad del Canal de Panamá, 2009.Autoridad del Canal de Panamá, 2006, p. 45. Such a vessel, called Neopanamax class, is wide enough to carry 19 columns of containers, can have a total capacity of approximately 12,000 TEU and is comparable in size to a capesize bulk carrier or a Suezmax tanker. Container ships under 3,000 TEU are generally called
feeder ship Feeder vessels or feeder ships are medium-size freight Ship, ships. In general, a feeder means a seagoing vessel with an average capacity of . Feeders collect Intermodal container, shipping containers from different ports and transport them to cen ...
s or feeders. They are small ships that typically operate between smaller container ports. Some feeders collect their cargo from small ports, drop it off at large ports for transshipment on larger ships, and distribute containers from the large port to smaller regional ports.McNicholas, p. 45. This size of vessel is the most likely to carry cargo cranes on board.


Cargo cranes

A major characteristic of a container ship is whether it has cranes installed for handling its cargo. Those that have cargo cranes are called ''geared'' and those that do not are called ''ungeared'' or ''gearless''. The earliest purpose-built container ships in the 1970s were all gearless.UNCTAD, 2010, p. 32. Since then, the percentage of geared newbuilds has fluctuated widely, but has been decreasing overall, with only 7.5% of the container ship capacity in 2009 being equipped with cranes. While geared container ships are more flexible in that they can visit ports that are not equipped with pierside container cranes, they suffer from several drawbacks. To begin with, geared ships will cost more to purchase than a gearless ship. Geared ships also incur greater recurring expenses, such as maintenance and fuel costs. The United Nations Council on Trade and Development characterizes geared ships as a "niche market only appropriate for those ports where low cargo volumes do not justify investment in port cranes or where the public sector does not have the financial resources for such investment". Instead of the rotary cranes, some geared ships have
gantry crane A gantry crane is a Crane (machine), crane built atop a wikt:gantry, gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the wor ...
s installed.Conrad, 1989, p. 249. These cranes, specialized for container work, are able to roll forward and aft on rails. In addition to the additional capital expense and maintenance costs, these cranes generally load and discharge containers much more slowly than their shoreside counterparts. The introduction and improvement of shoreside container cranes have been a key to the success of the container ship. The first crane that was specifically designed for container work was built in California's Port of Alameda in 1959. By the 1980s, shoreside gantry cranes were capable of moving containers on a 3-minute-cycle, or up to 400 tons per hour. In March 2010, at Port Klang in Malaysia, a new world record was set when 734 container moves were made in a single hour.UNCTAD, 2010, p. 100. The record was achieved using 9 cranes to simultaneously load and unload , a ship with a capacity of 9,600 TEU. Vessels in the 1,500–2,499 TEU range are the most likely size class to have cranes, with more than 60% of this category being geared ships. Slightly less than a third of the very smallest ships (from 100–499 TEU) are geared, and almost no ships with a capacity of over 4,000 TEU are geared.


Cargo holds

Efficiency has always been key in the design of container ships.Meurn & Sauerbier, 2004, pp. 1–16. While containers may be carried on conventional break-bulk ships, cargo holds for dedicated container ships are specially constructed to speed loading and unloading, and to efficiently keep containers secure while at sea. A key aspect of container ship specialization is the design of the hatches, the openings from the main deck to the cargo holds.Hayler & Keever, 2004, pp. 5–10. The hatch openings stretch the entire breadth of the cargo holds, and are surrounded by a raised steel structure known as the ''hatch coaming''. On top of the hatch coamings are the hatch covers. Until the 1950s, hatches were typically secured with wooden boards and tarpaulins held down with battens.Hayler & Keever, 2004, pp. 5-9 – 5-10. Today, some hatch covers can be solid metal plates that are lifted on and off the ship by cranes, while others are articulated mechanisms that are opened and closed using powerful hydraulic rams. Another key component of dedicated container-ship design is the use of ''cell guides''. Cell guides are strong vertical structures constructed of metal installed into a ship's cargo holds. These structures guide containers into well-defined rows during loading and provide some support for containers against the ship's rolling at sea. So fundamental to container ship design are cell guides that organizations such as the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the United Nations General Assembl ...
use their presence to distinguish dedicated container ships from general break-bulk cargo ships. A system of three dimensions is used in cargo plans to describe the position of a container aboard the ship.Meurn & Sauerbier, 2004, p. 1-19–1-21. The first coordinate is the ''bay'', which starts at the front of the ship and increases aft. The second coordinate is the ''row''. Rows on the starboard side are given odd numbers and those on the port side are given even numbers. The rows nearest the centerline are given low numbers, and the numbers increase for slots further from the centerline. The third coordinate is the ''tier'', with the first tier at the bottom of the cargo holds, the second tier on top of that, and so forth. Container ships typically take 20 foot and 40 foot containers. Some ships can take 45 footers above deck. A few ships (APL since 2007, Carrier53 since 2022 ) can carry 53 foot containers. 40 foot containers are the primary container size, making up about 90% of all container shipping and since container shipping moves 90% of the world's freight, over 80% of the world's freight moves via 40 foot containers.


Lashing systems

Numerous systems are used to secure containers aboard ships, depending on factors such as the type of ship, the type of container, and the location of the container.Meurn and Sauerbier, 2006, p. 1-35.Peck and Hale, 2000, p. 1-4. Stowage inside the holds of fully cellular (FC) ships is simplest, typically using simple metal forms called container guides, locating cones, and anti-rack spacers to lock the containers together.Peck and Hale, 2000, p. 2. Above-decks, without the extra support of the cell guides, more complicated equipment is used. Three types of systems are currently in wide use: lashing systems, locking systems, and buttress systems. Lashing systems secure containers to the ship using devices made from wire rope, rigid rods, or chains and devices to tension the lashings, such as turnbuckles. The effectiveness of lashings is increased by securing containers to each other, either by simple metal forms (such as stacking cones) or more complicated devices such as twist-lock stackers. A typical twist-lock is inserted into the casting hole of one container and rotated to hold it in place, then another container is lowered on top of it.Peck and Hale, 2000, p. 12. The two containers are locked together by twisting the device's handle. A typical twist-lock is constructed of forged steel and ductile iron and has a shear strength of 48 tonnes.Peck and Hale, 2000, p. 10. The buttress system, used on some large container ships, uses a system of large towers attached to the ship at both ends of each cargo hold.Meurn and Sauerbier, 2006, p. 1-38–1-40. As the ship is loaded, a rigid, removable stacking frame is added, structurally securing each tier of containers together.


Bridge

Container ships have typically had a single bridge and accommodation unit towards the rear, but to reconcile demand for larger container capacity with SOLAS visibility requirements, several new designs have been developed. , some large container ships are being developed with the bridge further forward, separate from the exhaust stack. Some smaller container ships working in European ports and rivers have liftable wheelhouses, which can be lowered to pass under low bridges.


Fleet characteristics

, container ships made up 13.3% of the world's fleet in terms of deadweight tonnage.UNCTAD 2010, p. 30. The world's total of container ship deadweight tonnage has increased from in 1980 to in 2010.UNCTAD 2010, p. 31. The combined deadweight tonnage of container ships and general cargo ships, which also often carry containers, represents 21.8% of the world's fleet.UNCTAD 2006, p. 19. , the average age of container ships worldwide was 10.6 years, making them the youngest general vessel type, followed by
bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially naval architecture, designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo—such as Grain trade, grain, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement—in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrie ...
s at 16.6 years,
oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...
s at 17 years, general cargo ships at 24.6 years, and others at 25.3 years.UNCTAD 2010, p. 34. Most of the world's carrying capacity in fully cellular container ships is in the liner service, where ships trade on scheduled routes.UNCTAD, 2010, pp. 85. As of January 2010, the top 20 liner companies controlled 67.5% of the world's fully cellular container capacity, with 2,673 vessels of an average capacity of 3,774 TEU. The remaining 6,862 fully cellular ships have an average capacity of 709 TEU each. The vast majority of the capacity of fully cellular container ships used in the liner trade is owned by German shipowners, with approximately 75% owned by Hamburg brokers. It is a common practice for the large container lines to supplement their own ships with chartered-in ships, for example in 2009, 48.9% of the tonnage of the top 20 liner companies was chartered-in in this manner.


Flag states

International law requires that every merchant ship be registered in a country, called its flag state.ICFTU et al., 2002, p. 7. A ship's flag state exercises regulatory control over the vessel and is required to inspect it regularly, certify the ship's equipment and crew, and issue safety and pollution prevention documents. , the United States Bureau of Transportation Statistics count 2,837 container ships of or greater worldwide.Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2007, p. 80.
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
was the world's largest flag state for container ships, with 541 of the vessels in its registry. Seven other flag states had more than 100 registered container ships:
Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
(415),
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
(248),
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
(177),
Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
(139), the
Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...
(118) and the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
(104). The Panamanian, Liberian, and Marshallese flags are open registries and considered by the
International Transport Workers' Federation The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic global union federation of transport workers' trade unions, founded in 1896. In 2017 the ITF had 677 member organizations in 149 countries, representing a combined membership o ...
to be flags of convenience. By way of comparison, traditional maritime nations such as the United States and Japan only had 75 and 11 registered container ships, respectively.


Vessel purchases

In recent years, oversupply of container ship capacity has caused prices for new and used ships to fall. From 2008 to 2009, new container ship prices dropped by 19–33%, while prices for 10-year-old container ships dropped by 47–69%.UNCTAD 2010, p. 53, 57. In March 2010, the average price for a geared 500-TEU container ship was $10 million, while gearless ships of 6,500 and 12,000 TEU averaged prices of $74 million and $105 million respectively.UNCTAD 2010, p. 56. At the same time, secondhand prices for 10-year-old geared container ships of 500-, 2,500-, and 3,500-TEU capacity averaged prices of $4 million, $15 million, and $18 million respectively.UNCTAD 2010, p. 57. In 2009, 11,669,000 gross tons of newly built container ships were delivered.UNCTAD 2010, p. 50. Over 85% of this new capacity was built in the Republic of Korea, China, and Japan, with Korea accounting for over 57% of the world's total alone. New container ships accounted for 15% of the total new tonnage that year, behind bulk carriers at 28.9% and oil tankers at 22.6%.


Scrapping

Most ships are removed from the fleet through a process known as scrapping. Scrapping is rare for ships under 18 years old and common for those over 40 years in age.UNCTAD, 2010, p. 35. Ship-owners and buyers negotiate scrap prices based on factors such as the ship's empty weight (called light ton displacement or LTD) and prices in the scrap metal market. Scrapping rates are volatile, the price per light ton displacement has swung from a high of $650 per LTD in mid-2008 to $200 per LTD in early 2009, before building to $400 per LTD in March 2010.UNCTAD 2010, p. 51. , over 96% of the world's scrapping activity takes place in China, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.UNCTAD 2010, p. 53. The global economic downturn of 2008–2009 resulted in more ships than usual being sold for scrap. In 2009, 364,300 TEU worth of container ship capacity was scrapped, up from 99,900 TEU in 2008. Container ships accounted for 22.6% of the total gross tonnage of ships scrapped that year.UNCTAD 2010, p. 52. Despite the surge, the capacity removed from the fleet only accounted for 3% of the world's container ship capacity. The average age of container ships scrapped in 2009 was 27.0 years.


Largest ships

Economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of Productivity, output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in ...
have dictated an upward trend in the size of container ships in order to reduce expenses. However, there are certain limitations to the size of container ships. Primarily, these are the availability of sufficiently large main engines and the availability of a sufficient number of ports and terminals prepared and equipped to handle ultra-large container ships. Furthermore, the permissible maximum ship dimensions in some of the world's main waterways could present an upper limit in terms of vessel growth. This primarily concerns the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
and the Singapore Strait. In 2008 the South Korean shipbuilder STX announced plans to construct a container ship capable of carrying , and with a proposed length of and a beam of . If constructed, the container ship would become the largest seagoing vessel in the world. Since even very large container ships are vessels with relatively low draft compared to large tankers and bulk carriers, there is still considerable room for vessel growth. Compared to today's largest container ships, Maersk Line's '' Emma Mærsk''-type series, a container ship would only be moderately larger in terms of exterior dimensions. According to a 2011 estimate, an ultra-large container ship of would measure , compared to for the ''Emma Mærsk'' class. It would have an estimated deadweight of circa 220,000 tons. While such a vessel might be near the upper limit for a Suez Canal passage, the so-called Malaccamax concept (for Straits of Malacca) does not apply for container ships, since the Malacca and Singapore Straits' draft limit of about is still above that of any conceivable container ship design. In 2011, Maersk announced plans to build a new " Triple E" family of container ships with a capacity of 18,000 TEU, with an emphasis on lower fuel consumption. In the present market situation, main engines will not be as much of a limiting factor for vessel growth either. The steadily rising expense of
fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil (bunker fuel), marine f ...
in the early 2010s had prompted most container lines to adapt a slower, more economical voyage speed of about 21 knots, compared to earlier top speeds of 25 or more knots. Subsequently, newly built container ships can be fitted with a smaller main engine. Engine types fitted to today's ships of are thus sufficiently large to propel future vessels of or more. Maersk Line, the world's largest container shipping line, nevertheless opted for twin engines (two smaller engines working two separate propellers), when ordering a series of ten 18,000 TEU vessels from Daewoo Shipbuilding in February 2011. The ships were delivered between 2013 and 2014. In 2016, some experts believed that the current largest container ships are at the optimum size, and could not economically be larger, as port facilities would be too expensive, port handling too time consuming, the number of suitable ports too low, and insurance cost too high. In March 2017 the first ship with an official capacity over 20,000 TEUs was christened at
Samsung Heavy Industries Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. () is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world and one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea (including Hyundai and Hanwha). Geoje (in South Gyeongsang Province) is one of the largest shipyards ...
. ''MOL Triumph'' has a capacity of 20,150 TEUs. Samsung Heavy Industries was expected to deliver several ships of over 20,000 TEUs in 2017, and has orders for at least ten vessels in that size range for OOCL and MOL. The world's largest container ship, ''MSC Irina'', was delivered March 9, 2023 by builder Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding to the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), with a capacity of 24,346 TEUs. Measuring 399.99 metres in length and 61.3 metres in beam, the ship is one of four ordered from the builder in 2020, and exceeded MSC's 24,116 TEU ''MSC Tessa'', which had been delivered that same day by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). In April, ''MSC Irina'' sister ship ''MSC Loreto'', with an equal capacity of 24,346 TEU was received by MSC. On June 2, 2023 Ocean Network Express took delivery of the ''ONE Innovation'' with a capacity of 24,136 TEUs. ''ONE Innovation'' is one of six new Megamax vessels ordered by Ocean Network Express in December 2020 to be built by a consortium of Imabari Shipbuilding and Japan Marine United.


Freight market

The act of hiring a ship to carry cargo is called chartering. Outside special
bulk cargo Bulk cargo is Product (business), product cargo that is transported packaging, unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate (as a mass of relatively small solids) form, ...
markets, ships are hired by three types of
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...
agreements: the voyage charter, the time charter, and the bareboat charter.Aragon & Messer, 2001, p. 233. In a voyage charter, the charterer rents the vessel from the loading port to the discharge port.Huber 2001, p. 212. In a time charter, the vessel is hired for a set period of time, to perform voyages as the charterer directs. In a bareboat charter, the charterer acts as the ship's operator and manager, taking on responsibilities such as providing the crew and maintaining the vessel.Huber 2001, pp. 212–213. The completed chartering contract is known as a charter party.Huber 2001, p. 213. The
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the United Nations General Assembl ...
NCTAD tracks in its 2010 ''Review of Maritime Trade'' two aspects of container shipping prices:UNCTAD, 2010, pp. 85–89. The first one is a chartering price, specifically the price to time-charter a 1 TEU slot for 14 tonnes of cargo on a container ship. The other is the freight rate; or comprehensive daily cost to deliver one-TEU worth of cargo on a given route.Huber 2001, p. 225. As a result of the
late-2000s recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.
, both indicators showed sharp drops during 2008–2009, and have shown signs of stabilization since 2010. UNCTAD uses the Hamburg Shipbrokers' Association (formally the ''Vereinigung Hamburger Schiffsmakler und Schiffsagenten e. V.'' or VHSS for short) as its main industry source for container ship freight prices. The VHSS maintains a few indices of container ship charter prices. The oldest, which dates back to 1998, is called the ''Hamburg Index''. This index considers time-charters on fully cellular container ships controlled by Hamburg brokers. It is limited to charters of 3 months or more, and presented as the average daily cost in U.S. dollars for a one-TEU slot with a weight of 14 tonnes. The Hamburg Index data is divided into ten categories based primarily on vessel carrying capacity. Two additional categories exist for small vessels of under 500 TEU that carry their own cargo cranes. In 2007, VHSS started another index, the ''New ConTex'' which tracks similar data obtained from an international group of shipbrokers. The Hamburg Index shows some clear trends in recent chartering markets. First, rates were generally increasing from 2000 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008, rates slowly decreased, and in mid-2008 began a "dramatic decline" of approximately 75%, which lasted until rates stabilized in April 2009. Rates have ranged from $2.70 to $35.40 in this period, with prices generally lower on larger ships. The most resilient sized vessel in this time period were those from 200 to 300 TEU, a fact that the United Nations Council on Trade and Development attributes to lack of competition in this sector. Overall, in 2010, these rates rebounded somewhat, but remained at approximately half of their 2008 values. As of 2011, the index shows signs of recovery for container shipping, and combined with increases in global capacity, indicates a positive outlook for the sector in the near future. UNCTAD also tracks container freight rates. Freight rates are expressed as the total price in U.S. dollars for a shipper to transport one TEU worth of cargo along a given route. Data is given for the three main container liner routes: U.S.-Asia, U.S.-Europe, and Europe-Asia. Prices are typically different between the two legs of a voyage, for example the Asia-U.S. rates have been significantly higher than the return U.S.-Asia rates in recent years. Generally, from the fourth quarter of 2008 through the third quarter of 2009, both the volume of container cargo and freight rates have dropped sharply. In 2009, the freight rates on the U.S.–Europe route were sturdiest, while the Asia-U.S. route fell the most. Liner companies responded to their overcapacity in several ways. For example, in early 2009, some container lines dropped their freight rates to zero on the Asia-Europe route, charging shippers only a surcharge to cover operating costs. They decreased their overcapacity by lowering the ships' speed (a strategy called " slow steaming") and by laying up ships. Slow steaming increased the length of the Europe-Asia routes to a record high of over 40 days. Another strategy used by some companies was to manipulate the market by publishing notices of rate increases in the press, and when "a notice had been issued by one carrier, other carriers followed suit".UNCTAD, 2010, p. 89. The Trans-Siberian Railroad (TSR) has recently become a more viable alternative to container ships on the Asia-Europe route. This railroad can typically deliver containers in 1/3 to 1/2 of the time of a sea voyage, and in late 2009 announced a 20% reduction in its container shipping rates. With its 2009 rate schedule, the TSR will transport a forty-foot container to Poland from Yokohama for $2,820, or from Pusan for $2,154.


Shipping industry alliances

In an effort to control costs and maximize capacity utilization on ever-larger ships, vessel sharing agreements, co-operative agreements, and slot-exchanges have become a growing feature of the maritime container shipping industry. As of March 2015, 16 of the world's largest container shipping lines had consolidated their routes and services accounting for 95 percent of container cargo volumes moving in the dominant east-west trade routes. Carriers remain operationally independent, as they are forbidden by antitrust regulators in multiple jurisdictions from colluding on freight rates or capacity. Similarities can be drawn with
airline alliance An airline alliance is an aviation industry arrangement between two or more airlines agreeing to cooperate on a substantial level. Alliances may provide marketing branding to facilitate travelers making inter-airline codeshare agreement, codeshare ...
s. In July 2016 the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
reported that it had raised concerns with 14 container shipping carriers regarding their practice of announcing General Rate Increases (GRIs) in a coordinated manner, which potentially conflicted with the EU and EEA rules on concerted practices which could distort competition ( Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). The shipping companies announced a series of commitments aiming to address the Commission's concerns, which for its part the Commission accepted as " legally binding" for the period from 2016 to 2019. General Rate Increases continue to be published in the industry either annually or sixth-monthly.


Container ports

Container traffic through a port is often tracked in terms of
twenty foot equivalent unit The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is a general unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box tha ...
s or TEU of throughput.UNCTAD, 2010, p.97. , the Port of Shanghai was the world's busiest container port, with 43,303,000 TEU handled. That year, seven of the busiest ten container ports were in the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, with
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
in 1st place, Ningbo 3rd,
Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...
4th,
Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
5th,
Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...
7th,
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
8th and
Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...
9th. Rounding out the top ten ports were
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
at 2nd,
Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...
in South Korea at 6th and
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
in the Netherlands in the 10th position. In total, the busiest twenty container ports handled 220,905,805 TEU in 2009, almost half of the world's total estimated container traffic that year of 465,597,537 TEU.


Losses and safety problems

It has been estimated that container ships lose between 2,000Containers Overboard!

TT Club
'' (Maritime insurers). Accessed: 26 February 2011.
and 10,000
containers A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
at sea each year, costing $370 million.Hauke Kite‐Powell
Benefits to maritime commerce from ocean surface vector wind observations and forecasts
''
NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...
'', December 2008. Accessed: 26 February 2011.
A survey for the six years 2008 through 2013 estimates average losses of individual containers overboard at 546 per year, and average total losses including catastrophic events such as vessel sinkings or groundings at 1,679 per yearSurvey Results for Containers Lost At Sea – 2014 Update
, June 2014. Accessed: 16 August 2019.
More recently, a survey conducted by the WSC from 2008–2019, saw an average of 1,382 shipping containers lost at sea. However, in the 3-year period from 2017–2019, that number was nearly halved, down to an average of 779 containers lost annually. Most go overboard on the open sea during storms but there are some examples of whole ships being lost with their cargo. One major shipping accident occurred in 2013 when the MOL Comfort sank with 4,293 containers onboard in the Indian Ocean. When containers are dropped, they immediately become an environmental threat – termed "
marine debris Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created solid material that has deliberately or accidentally been released in seas or the ocean. Floating oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and on coastlines, freque ...
".Sources of Marine Debris
''
NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...
''. Retrieved: 25 November 2010.
Once in the ocean, they fill with water and sink if the contents cannot hold air. Rough waters smash the container, sinking it quickly. As container ships get larger and stacking becomes higher, the threat of containers toppling into the sea during a storm increases. This results from a phenomenon called " parametric rolling," by which a ship can roll 30-40 degrees during rough seas creating a powerful torque on a 10-high stack of containers which can easily snap lashings and locks of the stack, resulting in losses into the sea. "Shipping firms experience a sharp rise in containers lost at sea," Feb. 25, 2021, Lockton Companies
/ref>


See also

* BBC Box *
Container on barge Container on barge is a form of intermodal freight transport where containers are stacked on a barge and towed to a destination . In the United States There is limited use of this mode of transport because a lack of infrastructure on the upr ...
*
Environmental impact of shipping Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
* List of largest container ships * List of world's longest ships * Ship resistance and propulsion


References


Sources


Shipboard operations

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Vessel categories

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Statistics

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History

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Safety and security

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External links


Ancient and modern mariners: The romance of the high seas in an age of quantification
– article in ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'' about a voyage on a 21st-century container ship * {{DEFAULTSORT:Container Ship Maritime transport Ship types Intermodal transport Port infrastructure