International shipping has experienced much revolution over the past three decades. This can greatly be attributed to the
emergence of carrying
international merchandise in a unitized form, thereby permitting an intermodal transport system to be evolved with the possible combination of sea, rail and road-CONTAINERIZATIONI.
The advent of containers made the movement of goods by sea quite economical and goods were less susceptible to damage and pilferage, pushing insurance premiums for containerised goods to an all-time low.
One cannot overlook the fact that, Container Vessels report quicker turn-round time at seaports around the world as compared to the employment of General Cargo Ships. Hence port charges costs are low for containerized goods and the practice of tonnage utilization is very effective in container tonnages.
Since the days of Malcom Mclean, the practice of freighting goods in the metal box has tremendously gained ground, and it is expected as that we progress into the 21st Century, more container vessels with higher TEUs will be developed.
The influence of
CONTAINERIZATION of world ports, has been the conversion of most seaports into containerized ports. Also, most seaports around the world are massively investing into the building of DEDICATED CONTAINER TERMINALS, to purposely handle container vessels.
International shipping has seen a lot of improvement with regards to the nature of goods that can conveyed by sea. An epitome of such an improvement is the way Reefer Containers have assisted in the Australian Meat Trade, the Argentina Beef Business and the Mediterranean Citrus Fruit and Grape Markets.
Most shipping companies are venturing into the container business with Maerskline leading currently with about 576 container ships.