It’s A Happy Birthday For Container Shipping
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.
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
