Their invention made a major contribution to the globalization of commerce in the second half of the 20th century, dramatically reducing the cost of transporting goods and hence of long-distance trade. In addition, it is estimated that several million of these containers have now been discarded due to the shipping cost of sending them back to their port of origin.
There are about seventeen million intermodal containers in the world, and a large proportion of the world's long-distance freight generated by international trade is transported in shipping containers. ( July 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī flatcar with a 20 ft tanktainer and an open-top 20 ft container with canvas coverįreight containers are a reusable transport and storage unit for moving products and raw materials between locations or countries. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification.
