Super Interesting Things You Probably Don’t Know About Container Ships
Facts about container ships, containers and container shipping
Container ships have been on everybody’s mind lately, but we’d like to have it on the record that the Link Ships Chandlers team has been fascinated with these gargantuan camels of the sea even before the Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal and engaged the global transportation world in a collective moment of blind panic.
Now that this Golden-class container ship has been refloated and everyone is free to breathe once more, we thought we’d ride this wave of interest by sharing a few interesting facts on these supply-chain stalwarts. Here goes!
There are at least 20 million containers en route right now
That’s right. As we speak, there are 20+ million containers on ships, making their way to destinations around the world. As you can imagine, with this amount of containers doing the rounds, the odds of some of them getting lost at sea are that much higher. In fact, approximately 10 000 containers don’t make it to their intended ports each year.
Shipping containers sizes are standardised
We find this very satisfying. There are so many differences in cultures around the globe that it would be easy to assume that containers from different countries would not necessarily adhere to the same dimension rules. However, this is one example of the great things that happen when everyone works together to streamline operations.
Because shipping container sizes are standardised (20 feet or 40 feet long, 7.87 feet wide, and 8.53 feet high) it’s possible to stack and transport it more easily by sea and road.
People from the Philippines are great freight employees
There are countless people working on cargo and other freight ships at any given time. The interesting thing that up to a third of those people tend to be from the Philippines. The nation is known as having very diligent workers, and these hard-working employees are determined to withstand the rigours of many weeks (even months) at sea, to take care of their families back home.
The average container ship travels almost to the moon in a given year
Freight ships go the distance – literally. The average container ship travels around 179,175 miles per year. That is roughly 3/4 of the way to the moon!
There you have it – four interesting facts about container ships that you probably didn’t know before. Feel free to get in touch with a member of the Link Ship Chandlers team if you would like to learn more about the services we provide from South African ports.
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