The Origin And Development Of Containers (Ⅶ) —— The Current Situation And Prospects Of Container Development

The Current Situation And Prospects Of Container Development

Now, Shipping containers have been everywhere, they also bring a series of social problems, such as the massive accumulation of abandoned containers, containers are too worn out and unusable, high maintenance costs and overproduction. The influx of containers has caused headaches for some government security officials - if a container loaded with radioactive time bombs explodes on arrival at an important port, it will contaminate the entire city and cause international trade turmoil. Many container terminals have radioactive material detectors at the entrance to prevent terrorist containers from being loaded onto ships. It has become common for some containers to be fitted with mattresses and toilets for smuggling, and it is impossible for entry inspectors to check each of the millions of containers filled with legitimate cargo.

While these problems are serious, they do not pose a significant threat to the growth of container shipping. The size of the container itself is gradually becoming larger, with 48- and even 53-foot containers already in use on trucks. The world shipbuilding industry is developing rapidly, and from 2001 to 2005, the capacity of container ships increased by 10% per year, and the size of the ships reached an unprecedented scale. By 2006, there will be dozens of ships worldwide capable of carrying 4,000 40-foot containers, and larger container ships are already in order.

In the 21st century, many ships are restricted in sailing through the Straits of Malacca because of the rapid growth in ship size. If a container ship reaches the Malacca limit, it will be ¼ mile long and 190 feet wide, with a bottom roughly 65 feet below the draft line. If it sank, it would lose $1 billion worth of cargo. It would have a capacity of 18,000 TEU and would require a 68-mile (1 mile = 1609.3 m) long truck line to unload once it arrived in port. In practice, however, there is hardly a port that can accommodate it, and new terminals may need to be built on the deep-water coast. When Malacca Extreme container ships arrive in port, smaller ships transfer the containers ashore. If these become a reality, expensive container ships and ports will bring about greater economic change, making it cheaper, easier and faster to move goods around the world.

The development of security and intelligence of containers is an important trend. For example, after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the United States proposed an intelligent container plan, that is, the container electronic seal supervisory system. The container electron seal supervising and managing system core is based on the RFID technology, substitutes the lead seal and the plastic seal container electron seal system, it not only has the traditional seal system security function, but also has the function which supports the electronic record, can realize the automatic recognition and the tracking and so on. How to safeguard the container transportation security is urgent, the government considers the national and social security, for the customs, the port company, the shipping company, the logistics company as well as the cargo owner, in addition to prevent from the destruction of the terrorist organization, but also to prevent the theft of goods. Therefore, the container electron seal supervising and managing system to the container and its loaded goods to implement the higher security guarantee and the real-time tracing has the important significance.

In addition, the container specialization trend gradually enhances. At present, the special box and the tank box profit margin is higher, the market space is bigger, adjusts the dry cargo box, the special box (including the special cold box) and the tank box product structure, competes for the high-end product field is many container manufacturer's product development strategy.

In the next few years, with the rapid development of materials, electronics, computers and network technology, the industrial quality of the container and industrial technology will continue to upgrade. The quality of raw materials (such as wood flooring) and manufacturing processes (such as painting process) will gradually improve, environmentally friendly materials and products (such as environmentally friendly wood flooring and environmentally friendly cold boxes) are being developed and promoted and applied, and product features will continue to increase. In short, with the development of container transport and the modernization of management, container transport will develop in the direction of logistics centers, scientific management, efficient ports and large ships. Containerization will further reduce transportation costs, shorten transportation cycles, improve transportation quality, and better realize providing customers with high-quality, on-time, convenient and inexpensive services.