If you are looking for Shipping Containers to buy or hire, we suggest you first read this page for all the background information and then to visit The Shipping UK-Directory website where you will find a large number of UK shipping container suppliers. 

The Shipping UK-Directory - This is a directory of UK Shipping Container suppliers based in the United Kingdom.

If you want to quickly locate one of our recommended suppliers, we have found one particular company that complies with all the criteria that we believe is required to be a reliable shipping container supplier in the UK: 1st Containers UK

The History of the Shipping Container

It was 50 years ago that the shipping container, as we know it today, was invented.

Shipping containers are now an everyday sight, transported by road, rail, sea and air, to destinations all over the world. Every product in the world is transported by shipping container.

The shipping container has almost single handedly created the conditions needed to build a truly global exchange of goods - the global economy.
 
It now costs less to ship a container between China and Felixstowe than it does to send it on the road to Scotland.

More time at sea

The logistics revolution began in the US on 26 April 1956, when a crane lifted 58 aluminium containers on to a converted war-surplus oil tanker at a dock in Newark, New Jersey.
 
Transport boss Malcom McLean had watched teams of dock workers unloading goods from trucks and transferring them to ships and came up with a more efficient way of doing things.

He refitted two oil tankers and designed truck containers that could be stacked on or below their decks

Malcom McLean invented container shipping

Small shipping containers had been around for many years, but they had just been seen as another item of cargo.

McLean's innovation was to see a whole transport systems built around containerised cargo, which could be moved seamlessly between trains, trucks and ships.

"Before the container came along a typical ship might spend a week tied up at dock," says Marc Levinson, the author of a new book, The Box, which explores the history of the shipping container and its impact on the global economy.

"A typical cargo ship in the 1950s might have 200,000 individual items to be loaded.

"It was a hugely labour intensive business and hugely costly. What the container did was get rid of all that."

New ports

As port operators saw the advantages of containerisation - reduced handling costs, quicker throughput of vessels and lower levels of pilfering of cargos - they started adapting their facilities.

The cost comparisons were startling. Loading loose cargo onto an average ship in 1956 cost $5.86 per US ton.

Container ports could load vessels for just under 16 cents. Many dock workers went on strike at the threat to their jobs, which, together with their slowness in upgrading their facilities, only helped to push business away from traditional major port cities like New York and London to newer sites like New Jersey and Felixstowe on the UK's east coast.

"Felixstowe was just a little town that hadn't had much of a port at all before but it had lots of room for containers," says Mr Levinson.

"But it had a container crane, which meant that a lot of port activity that had previously been in London and Liverpool moved to Felixstowe."

Key enabler

The arrival of containerisation did more than just change where and how ships docked. It helped globalise the world economy. Manufacturers no longer had to crowd near to ports or customers in order to reduce their transport costs. They could source cheaper components or even outsource production overseas as lower transport costs helped extend supply chains.

CONTAINER SHIPPING

Indeed, container shipping lines now run so efficiently that it doesn't really matter where you are sourcing products from. If you look at the transport cost per individual item, it costs about $10 to send a TV set from China to the UK, or 10 cents to deliver a bottle of wine from Australia to America.

"It costs less to ship a container between China and Felixstowe than it does to then send it on the road to Scotland," says Philip Damas, research director at shipping consultancy Drewry.

The rapid growth in world trade has now made ports sexy. Recent months have seen a bidding war for UK-based P&O, the world's third biggest ports operator.

A container ship can now be loaded in a matter of hour

Another operator, Associated British Ports, is being courted by a consortium led by investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Much of the excitement in the sector is being stirred up by the huge rise in trade into and out of India and China, which will push up overall world trade levels by an estimated 7% this year. Worldwide container traffic grew by 14% in 2004 and about 11% last year, and the infrastructure is beginning to creak under the strain.

"If the market continues to grow at this rate it will lead to congestion in marine terminals, shipping lanes and road and rail networks," says Mr Fossey. It is perhaps a shame that Mr McLean isn't around anymore to come up with another brilliant solution to that problem.
 

Special terms about Shipping Containers you should be aware of

In the shipping container industry, there are a great number of  terms you should be familiar with in order to understand containers and shipping information. These relate to container dimensions, container capacity, container rating, tare mass, payloads, container tare mass, container payload, general purpose containers, dry cargo containers. reefers, refrigerated containers, tare weight, tares, container markings, container classifications, half height containers, TEU, twenty-foot equivalent unit, knots, cellular container ships, CBM, cubic measurements. container services, standard containers, hicube, high cube containers, cargo cubes, global shipping, import-export shipping, logistics, logistics management, logistics supports, shipping space, shipping order, S/O. shipping permits, shipping notes, dock receipts, master ships, mother ships, feeder vessels, transhipment, transshipment, transit shipment, dead freight, seaports, ports. freight forwarders, consolidators, freight consolidators, customs brokers, customs forwarders, brokers, customhouse brokers, customs house brokers, voyage, flight. groupage operators, shipping operators, shipping firms, shipping company, air shipping, ocean shipping, carriers, freight company, transport company, ETA, ETD, ETS. transportation, transports, ocean shipping company, freight containers, couriers, airlines, tariffs, custom tariffs, shipping dangerous goods, shipping schedules. air containers, ocean containers, shipping containers, container load, LCL, full container load, FCL, marine insurance, cargo insurance, import-export insurance. NVOCC, nonvessel operating common carriers, NVO, nonvessel owner carriers, nonvessel owning carriers, ocean freight consolidator, steamship.


Container Dimensions and Capacity

Rating, Tare Mass and Payload of Containers


Rating

Dimensions of Standard ISO Marine Shipping Containers

Rear view of 20' x 8.5' container

Miscalculated capacity may result in a large empty and unusable space or a shortage in space. For example (see 20' x 8.5' container diagram on the left), the master cartons have a uniform height of 20 inches, and the length and width are greater than the height. If 1170 cubic feet is used to calculate a 20' full container load, most likely some cartons will not fit despite the empty space of about 170 cubic feet. You cannot stuff the remaining cartons into the remaining 14" high empty space.

SHIPPING  CONTAINERS and STORAGE considerations - Successful Logistics Management

Throughout the shipping container industry, there are a great number of  terms you should be familiar with in order to understand containers and shipping information. These relate to Container packings, export corrugated cartons, export wooden cases, export boxes, export bales, container dimensions, import-export packings, import packs. export packages, import packages, pallets, pallet orientation, palletized cargo, import-export drums, bags, wooden cases, wooden crates, shipping pallets, pallet stowing. packing orientation, package orientation, TEU, twenty-foot equivalent unit, CBM, cubic measurements, knots, cellular container ships, multimodal transport, combined transport bill of lading, through bill of lading. Forwarders, freight forwarders, consolidators, freight consolidators, customs forwarders, container classifications, box, LO/LO, lift on, lift off, ISO, ISO freight containers, International Organization for Standardization. platform, flat racks, general cargo containers, specific cargo containers, general purpose containers, dry cargo containers, closed ventilated containers, container ventilation, open top containers, thermal container, reefers, freight reefers. insulated container, refrigerated containers, heated containers, tank containers, dry bulk containers, unit load device, ULD, IATA, International Air Transport Association, air containers, ocean containers, shipping containers, container load, LCL, full container load, FCL. TEU, twenty-foot equivalent unit, knots, cellular container ships, multimodal transport, combined transport bill of lading, through bill of lading, CBM, cubic measurements. container services, standard containers, hicube, high cube containers, cargo cubes, global shipping, import-export shipping, logistics, logistics management, logistics supports, shipping space, shipping order, S/O. Shipping permits, shipping notes, dock receipts, master ships, mother ships, feeder vessels, transhipment, transshipment, transit shipment, dead freight, seaports, ports. freight forwarders, consolidators, freight consolidators, customs brokers, customs forwarders, brokers, customhouse brokers, customs house brokers, voyage, flight. groupage operators, shipping operators, shipping firms, shipping company, air shipping, ocean shipping, carriers, freight company, transport company, ETA, ETD, ETS. transportation, transports, ocean shipping company, freight containers, couriers, airlines, tariffs, custom tariffs, shipping dangerous goods, shipping schedules. air containers, ocean containers, shipping containers, container load, LCL, full container load, FCL, marine insurance, cargo insurance, import-export insurance. NVOCC, nonvessel operating common carriers, NVO, nonvessel owner carriers, nonvessel owning carriers, ocean freight consolidator, and steamship.


Containers efficient packing
Corrugated Cartons, Wooden Cases/Boxes, and Bales
The basic information on how to efficiently pack (load) the containers is being discussed here. There are several container-loading software in the market in which the exporters and shippers may use to generate the efficient way of packing (loading) the containers.

Refer to the diagram below, a regular-shaped export pack (carton) has six different possible orientations as follows:

The orientation or a combination of orientations that allows the greatest number of packs or the highest multiple of packs is the most efficient method of packing.

Referring to the method (A) of stowing the container is the export pack orientation (1) shown above, the method (B) is the orientation (4), and the method (C) is the combination of orientations (1) and (4). The product DX demands the stowage of cartons in an upright position. Other orientations cannot be used as the product could be damaged.

Further to the above case sample, assume that the product DX can be stowed in any orientation. The different multiples of carton (of the product DX) that can be packed into a 40' x 8.5' standard dry cargo container, based on the external dimension of carton

A = 18"
B = 12"
C = 12"

and the internal dimension of 40' container

D = 473"
W = 92"
H = 94"

are as follows:

Export Pack Orientation	Multiple of Carton				Total No. of Cartons
(1)		D	A	=  26	26 x 07 x 07	=  1,274
		W	B	=  7
		H	C	=  7
(2)		D	A	=  26	26 x 07 x 07	=  1,274
		H	B	=  7
		W	C	=  7
(3)		H	A	=  5	05 x 07 x 39	=  1,365
		W	B	=  7
		D	C	=  39
(4)		W	A	=  5	05 x 39 x 07	=  1,365
		D	B	=  39
		H	C	=  7
(5)		H	A	=  5	05 x 39 x 07	=  1,365
		D	B	=  39
		W	C	=  7
(6)		W	A	=  5	05 x 07 x 39	=  1,365
		H	B	=  7
		D	C	=  39

Export pack orientations (3) to (6) have the highest number of cartons, thus are the most efficient way of packing. In practice, the orientations (1), (4), and a combination of (1) and (4) are often used.