Quo vadis, traffic?

success of his invention, when the “father of
containerisation” died in May 2001.
FAREWELL, HARBOUR DOVE
Entirely new times dawned with the introduction of
container transport. Ten more years had gone by until
the first container vessel named “Fairland” entered a
European harbour and the first container was discharged
in Bremen, Germany, on 6th May, but the
triumph of the amazing boxes could not be stopped
despite continuing distrust. There were too many
reasons for the stable and solid steel frame boxes.
Of course, McLeans invention resulted in significant
changes of the working environment. Not only that
the containers outpaced the numerous dock workers
who formerly loaded and unloaded the ships. The
considerably reduced waiting times of the ships also
put an end to the romantic harbour life, since there
was no longer time enough for the sailors’ liaisons.
But the introduction of the simple metal boxes was a
blessing for economy. If, for example, a worker needed
four hours for unloading 360 bags of coffee, this was
just one drop for a container.
DIMENSIONS, STANDARDS, CODES
The increasing enthusiasm of the forwarders for the
coloured boxes in the 1960s quickly required standardisation,
for American standards could not simply
be transferred to European or Asian conditions. After
long discussions, people agreed on lengths of 10, 20,
30 and 40 feet, 8’ width and 8’ or 8’6” height as ISO
standards; today, mainly TEU (twenty feet equivalent
unit) and FEU (fourty feet equivalent unit) are
dominant. The diversity of the steel boxes seems to be
unlimited: whether open top, open side, platform,
tank containers, ventilated or cooled – everything
seems possible. And though all look alike, their owners
known at any time where their “babies” are - thanks
to the code number of four owner letters, six digits
and one control digit. Some are already think of
equipping the containers with GPS.
THE SKY IS THE LIMIT?
No end of the container boom can be seen, the market
still grows three times as quickly as the global
economy. Apart from the quicker, largely automated
turnover and the better space utilisation during
transport and storing, it is mainly the closed transport
chain “Land and Sea” that favours the box.
No matter where and what has been produced,
containers transport it from A to B, all safe and
cheap. It is not amazing that the shipping companies
make great plans in view of the fact that already
70 percent of general cargo are transported in
containers. Since 1996, the number of container ships
has doubled. Estimated 8,000 ships with room for a
total of nine to ten million containers are sailing the
oceans, the largest of them transporting 8,000 to
10,000 TEU. And there are rumours of ships for
18,000 boxes being planned. Of course, containers
themselves are growing. For quite some time, 53’
containers are used in the USA, in some states even
57’ boxes. The rest of the world backs off in this
regard, which is partly due to the narrower roads.
But maybe this turns out to be an advantage in the
end. Though analysts forecast that the market will
still boom in future, they also warn that such a
cyclical market may quickly generate over-capacities,
as was the case five years ago. As everybody knows,
every peak is followed by a trough.
FOKUS | FOCUS
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