Container How one steel box rewired the world
Largest ship afloat · boxes carried 1955 2024
Days a ship sat in port + A WEEK OR MORE
Cost to load one ton of cargo $5.86 $0.16 36× CHEAPER
First container crossing · April 1966 NEWARK ROTTERDAM 236 BOXES
ISO 668 · one twenty-foot unit 20 FT 8 FT 6 1 TEU
Sea-Land, 1967 — 1970 OUT · US TO CAM RANH BAY HOME · THE RETURN LEG EMPTY JAPAN THE PACIFIC TRADE
Registered longshoremen · New York ABOUT 35,000 ABOUT 3,500 ONE IN TEN LEFT
Million boxes a year · 1995 → 2023 HONG KONG SINGAPORE ROTTERDAM SHANGHAI ROTTERDAM LED THE WORLD 1962 — 2004
Cost to ship one 40-ft box · world average 2019 · ABOUT $1,500 ABOUT $10,000
Same scale · 160 m and 400 m 1956 · IDEAL-X · 58 BOXES 2023 · MSC IRINA · 24,346 BOXES 400 M

1955

Largest ship afloat none yet

Drag the quay to travel · or pull the year rail

01 1955 you are here

Break-bulk

Cargo came aboard piece by piece — sacks, barrels, crates — carried by gangs of men.

To load one ton$5.86

Century crossed0%