With the continuous development of modern transportation towards large-scale and specialized directions, containers, as "big iron boxes," play an important role. What exactly is a container? What are the advantages of containers? What are the changes in container transportation?

1. What is a container

A container is a tool that can load packaged or unpackaged goods for transportation, and is convenient for loading, unloading, handling, and stacking using mechanical equipment.

【Packaged Goods】 Goods packaged in boxes, barrels (oil), bags (animal and vegetable oil/wine), cans, bottles (wine), bundles (steel), racks (cars), etc.

【Non packaged goods】 Coal (transported in closed and open containers), minerals, grains, fertilizers, crude oil, and other goods.

2. The Development History of Containers

Containers were created by Malcolm McLean in 1946 for ocean transportation, but they were not widely used on a large scale in the next 10 years. The main factor was that containers were not standardized, and it was not until 1961 that the International Container Group formulated container standards.

Containers facilitate loading and unloading between various modes of transportation (multimodal transportation), reduce costs, save time, and improve efficiency. At present, a modern transportation and logistics system that integrates multimodal transportation such as ships, ports, routes, highways, and transit stations worldwide has gradually taken shape.

3. Advantages of Containers

（1） High efficiency transportation method: Compared with ordinary bulk cargo loading and unloading, container transportation simplifies packaging and saves packaging costs; It can reduce collisions and damages between goods, improve freight quality, reduce operating costs, and reduce transportation costs.

（2） Efficient transportation method: Generally, the loading and unloading of ordinary cargo ships is about 35 tons/hour, while container loading and unloading can reach 400 tons/hour, which can reduce the time for ships to dock, improve work efficiency, and reduce the costs of operating companies.

（3） High collaboration transportation method: In container transportation, cargo ships, bridge cranes and transportation vehicles are perfectly connected, and the entire process is mechanized, saving time, reducing labor usage, and reducing costs; At the same time, it improves work efficiency and makes transportation more professional.

（4） High scale multimodal transportation: Multimodal transportation using containers as the transportation unit can improve transportation efficiency and achieve door-to-door transportation. During transportation, there is no need to change boxes or boxes, which can reduce intermediate links and possible damage to goods caused by changes, shorten transportation time, and improve transportation quality.

4. Container transportation that keeps up with the times

（1） The application fields of containers have increased: With the development of the economy, containers that originally belonged to the transportation industry have also been continuously applied to other fields such as mobile offices (housing), container refrigerated rooms, container hospitals, etc.

（2） Promoted the development of modular construction: Thanks to the large capacity of containers, large modules can be transported, which enables efficient modular construction methods, where modules are produced simultaneously at locations A, B, and C, and then transported to location D for assembly.

At present, many countries' ports and large-scale construction projects adopt this method of construction, which effectively saves time, shortens the construction period, and improves construction efficiency; And it is easy to disassemble and maintain, which can significantly reduce construction costs; It can meet the needs of constructing large-scale projects in areas with relatively harsh natural conditions.

（3） There is a trend of liquid bags replacing canned transportation: with the change of market demand and the improvement of science and technology, a combination of disposable liquid bags and containers has been used to replace the traditional method of can/bottle/barrel transportation when transporting liquids such as animal and vegetable oil and wine. The outstanding advantages of liquid bag transportation are simple loading and unloading cleaning, large loading capacity, one-time use, reduced unloading manpower, low transportation cost, and flexible development of transportation plans.

The Economist magazine in the UK even believes that globalization cannot exist without containers. Because modern containers have changed unfavorable conditions such as poor transportation packaging, disorderly storage, long manual loading and unloading time, difficulty in loading and unloading, and long berthing time, they have greatly promoted the development of global trade. Allowing people from different regions to choose products from other regions has improved people's quality of life, reduced freight transportation costs, and made modern transportation connections between different countries closer, thereby changing the global economic form and promoting the development of economic globalization.

CIMC Equilink provides various types of new and used containers, especially our standard containers, 40 feet container price and 20 feet container price are very affordable.If you are looking for shipping containers for sale, please visit us by email（info.equilink@cimc.com）or submit a quick quote.

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