Container Shipping Turns 60 Today. Happy Birthday to You!

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It’s A Happy Birthday For Container Shipping

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The Container shipping turns 60 years old today.  On 26th April 1956, it was Malcolm McLean, a trucking magnate, who used a converted tanker to move the first containerized cargo by sea.

The History:

  • The first converted tanker to move the first containerized cargo, on board Malcolm McLean’s Ideal-X, by sea was from New Jersey to Houston, 60 years ago, back in 1956.
  • Sea-Land introduced the first Transatlantic service after four years.
  • In 1969, in the UK, Overseas Container Lines launched its first service.

Till date, containerized shipment has become the glue that holds together today’s globalised economy.  This week’s Analysis takes a look at how the container sector exploded into the centre ground of the world’s shipping business.

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Across the last 40 years, the compound annual growth rate in global container trade volumes stands at 9%, and this year world box trade is projected to surpass 180m TEU.  As the graph shows, following the first 20 years of container shipping history, the next 20, 1977-1996, saw the addition of an estimated 41m TEU of box trade per annum, and the most recent 20 years have seen the addition of a further massive 136m TEU of annual loaded container trade.

Source: Clarksons