Hello!
Many in life, probably had to deal with such a large iron box, which is an ordinary shipping
container.
Shipping containers are steel crates that are used to ship everything from fruits to
shoes, from computers to flammable and hazardous industrial materials.
Container shipping is one of the largest components of world trade.
They account for 52% of the world's freight traffic.
The world's largest container ship can carry up to 24,000 containers, more than the Empire
State Building and the equivalent of about 4.5 football fields.
Today, this industry is at the heart of the global economy.
But sea transport has not always been as efficient as it is today.
At the dawn of navigation, goods were loaded onto ships in bags, in barrels, and in wooden
boxes.
The dockers squeezed all the goods as best they could on decks or in narrow holds, often
spending more time in ports than on the voyage itself.
This continued until 1956, when American truck driver Malcolm Purcell McLean stood in line
for days, waiting for unloading and watching the work of a dozen sailors and loaders.
Then a simple thought came to his mind: to load the ship not with boxes, but with whole
trucks with boxes.
It would save a lot of time, money and effort.
It took him 20 years to save up enough money to buy a World War II tanker, on which he
tested his idea.
And in 1956, an event occurred that determined world globalization.
The ship with 58 containers left New Jersey for Houston.
Upon arrival, the containers were reloaded onto trucks and delivered to the recipients.
If before the loading of goods cost 6 dollars per ton, now it has become 16 cents.
Malcom McLean achieved a 37-fold reduction in download costs.
It was from that moment that the foundations for the creation of container transportation
were laid, and a revolution took place in the transportation industry.
In 1966, a single standard was adopted for container sizes.
Containerization has changed the world.
Now the sorting of cargo into containers began to be carried out even before it is loaded.
This increased efficiency in loading and unloading cargo.
But it has also brought some problems in the organization of transportation, since giant
ships are moored in large ports and hundreds or thousands of containers must be loaded
into them at the same time.
Container terminals have become hubs for intermodal transport.
The process of container transportation is aimed at the movement and delivery of goods
using the minimum time for reloading to another mode of transport.
This means that containers change the mode of transport from sea to road or rail.
Containers can also be moved by air, but this is not common.
The principles of container transportation come down not only to saving time for the
delivery of goods from point A to point B. It is also a guarantee of product safety,
prevention of theft and loss.
The goods are transported in the same cargo container, which is transferred from one mode
of transport to another at transshipment points.
The container is a removable body of a car or wagon.
At first glance, it may seem that the transport of containers is a simple process, but in
fact it is a complex system, full of checks and various procedures.
In this video, we will see how a container travels from the point of origin to the destination.
There are three main stakeholders in the container shipping industry.
This is an importer who wants to receive cargo from an exporter from another country, this
is an exporter who wants to sell and send cargo to an importer, and a shipping company
that delivers the cargo.
She receives the cargo from the exporter and sends it to the importer.
In addition to them, other services are involved in this process, which help to simplify the
process of sending containers by a transport company.
For example, a well-known denim brand from the US wants to donate a batch of its denim
trousers to China.
Once the shipment is ready, the exporter will first select a specific transport company
whose container will arrive at his factory to load the cargo.
If there is enough cargo, several containers will be used, usually twenty-foot and forty-foot
containers.
If there is relatively little cargo, then LCL containers are used, the English abbreviation
stands for Less Than Container Load - incomplete container loading.
In them, the shipper reserves only a part or a separate place in the container.
Such a shipment will cost less than a full container and it makes sense to order it when
delivering small loads and consignments of goods.
In fact, payment is made for the use of space inside the container-consolidator - per cubic
meter or ton.
Next comes the freight forwarder.
It will help both the importer and the exporter.
The forwarder organizes the delivery of containers from the shipping company to the exporter
for filling them with goods and sealing the cargo.
After the containers are sealed, the sealing numbers and a specific identifier are transferred
to the exporter.
This unique identification number allows the exporter to track the movement of his cargo.
If the transported products are inherently hazardous, such as gas or pesticides, they
are transported in IMO1 tank containers.
They are sent in the same way.
If the cargo is perishable or temperature sensitive, then refrigerated containers are
used.
In them, products can endure long journeys.
Now the forwarder organizes intermodal transportation.
It consists of transporting a container from the exporter's warehouse or factory to the
designated port of shipment for loading onto a vessel.
Then the exporter's representative and the forwarder fill in all the necessary port customs
documents, the final check of the containers is carried out, the exporter pays port dues
for the movement of containers within the port.
The freight forwarder also receives a bill of lading - a document containing full information
about the cargo and proving that the carrier has accepted the responsibility to deliver
it to the port of destination.
It is issued to the sender after receiving the cargo and leaving the ship from the port
of shipment.
The Chamber of Commerce issues a certificate of origin to the exporter.
In the port, the weight of the container is measured and entries are made in the port
documents, according to which the containers will be stowed in the port in such a way that
they can be easily taken out in accordance with the schedule of the ship assigned to
them.
The container is now ready to be loaded onto the ship.
The captain of the vessel is informed in advance about the cargo containers that will be loaded
on board at a particular port.
The cargo loading plan is drawn up by the shipping company's cargo planner.
It receives data from the chief mate on the current loading status, including cargo placement,
fuel and water quantities on board.
As soon as the vessel arrives for loading, the container is delivered from the port warehouse
located next to the vessel by port container trucks capable of transporting one 40-foot
or two 20-foot containers.
Containers are loaded according to the cargo plan by giant harbor cranes, which lift them
from trucks and lower them onto the ship.
Part of the containers can be stored in the ship's cargo hold.
To do this, it provides guides for containers, so that it is convenient to lower and raise
them from the hold.
In addition, these vertical structures, going from top to bottom, also prevent the movement
of containers inside the hold.
After all the containers are loaded into the hold, a hatch cover is installed above them.
It is a movable waterproof structure placed above the cargo hold to prevent water ingress.
If the container is to be unloaded at the next port, then it is usually located on the
deck, including on the hatch cover.
All deck containers are equipped with additional fastenings so that they do not loosen and
fall overboard when the ship is in rough seas.
This means that a huge ship with containers can get into stormy seas in bad weather, following
its course.
So why don't these stacked containers fall into the sea?
When securing containers on board, it is necessary to take into account the loads resulting from
vessel movement and wind pressure.
A vessel at sea has three types of pitching: side, keel and vertical pitching.
They are the three main forces acting on the containers on the ship.
Rolling is the biggest problem for container stacks.
If containers are transported on the deck of a container ship, they must be securely
fastened to the vessel.
Container lashing is the process of securing containers on board a ship.
As the size of ships increases, their container capacity can reach 16 rows of containers stacked
up eight levels, which is equivalent to a seven-story building.
Containers loaded onto the vessel are fastened to the deck of the vessel and to each other
with the help of tie rods, lanyards, twist locks and other structures.
This prevents them from moving across the deck and containers from falling overboard.
Each container has four corner castings for which the stacker clings to it.
To date, one of the most reliable ways of fastening containers is the use of so-called
twistlocks.
This device is a kind of twist lock, the movable part of which is placed inside the mounting
sockets (holes in the corners of the container and on the deck).
The pins are tapered and fit snugly into the oval holes in the corner post of the container.
If the twistlock arm is rotated 90 degrees to the locked position, this will lock the
two pins into two containers either side by side or on top of each other.
Thus, the containers are securely connected to each other.
It remains for the deck crew to ensure that the twistlocks are set correctly and locked
so that the containers cannot fall.
Because even if one twistlock is not set correctly, the entire stack of containers can tip over
and be endangered.
Once all the containers are loaded, they are attached to the ship's bridge with a lashing
bridge.
This is a long steel structure of the vessel, installed between the hatches, in order to
attach containers to it.
Before the ship is dispatched, the containers are also checked by stevedores - representatives
of the port administration on the ship during its stay in the port.
They are responsible for lashing and unfastening containers.
At sea, the crew of the ship regularly checks the fasteners.
They tighten more when stormy weather sets in.
And no matter how hard responsible persons try, cases of containers falling overboard
still happen.
This happens due to human error or when the ship encounters extreme weather.
Containers can fall overboard and get lost at sea.
So, only in 2021, the total number of containers lost at sea amounted to 3133 units.
All refrigerated containers are placed only on the deck, as they need electrical connection
points for the normal operation of the refrigeration unit.
The loaded ship goes to the next port of destination.
The loading plan is very important as the containers are loaded and secured on board
the ship according to the plan.
If the loading plan is incorrect and containers destined for the next port are stacked too
deep inside the cargo hold, it will take extra time for the port crane operator to reach
the container.
And this means that the ship will stay in the port longer than the appointed time.
The shipowner will have to pay for the extra time.
The officers in charge of checking container lashings check the lashings from time to time
to make sure everything is
in order and the cargo is securely fastened.
Dangerous goods are checked for leaks and damage.
As soon as the ship reaches the port of destination, the containers will be unloaded by port cranes
capable of lifting multi-ton cargo.
Cranes can be hinged to allow large ships to pass underneath, or can be fixed to reduce
airspace.
The taps are connected to the containers by means of corner fittings, which, like most
other parts of the container, are standardized throughout the world by the International
Organization for Standardization.
Terminal tractors deliver containers from the ship to the port warehouse, where they
will wait until trucks pick them up.
These funny trucks are designed to transport containers over short distances.
There is another technique for moving containers around the port storage yard.
The most interesting of them are reachstackers and portals on rubber tires.
Rubber tyred portals have wheels and are cranes capable of holding containers completely.
Reachstackers have a long boom that allows you to easily stack containers in multiple
rows.
They also carry out loading onto semi-trailers and railway wagons.
In large ports, the process of unloading and loading can be fully automated.
In such a port, the crane operator remotely controls the gantry crane using computer software
that unloads the containers from the vessel.
The container is then loaded into a fully automated cargo terminal, which takes it to
a storage area where it is unloaded by an automated stacker crane.
This is one area where computer-assisted logistics planning can be of enormous benefit.
Knowing the exact date and time to pick up the container, the computer can plan the most
efficient way to stack the containers.
This ensures that the container is not placed too deep in the stacks and when its time comes,
it can quickly leave the port area, thereby reducing the number of operations to a minimum.
At the port, the importer's representative presents the bill of lading and other documents
to the shipping company.
These are the same documents that were received at the port
of shipment by the exporter.
They were sent by courier to the importer to receive the shipment.
The importer's representative or forwarder receives the cargo from the port's warehouse.
The container is delivered by intermodal transport to the importer's warehouse, where it is unloaded.
The empty container is returned to the shipping company's container yard, where
it will wait for the next order.
The world is now connected by thousands of container shipping routes, allowing companies
and individuals to trade around the world.
That's all.
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