Marine Container

Definition

   A container is a metal box, with a parallelepiped shape, used for good transport. It can be used with different transports modes. Their dimensions have been internationally standardized. It has, in each angle, some prehension devices allowing it to be fastened and to be transhipped from a transport mode to another one.

History

First containers appear in the 1950s. Two companies, Sea-Land Service and Matson Navigation had already established their ranges of containers, 35 feet for Sea-Land Service and 24 feet for Matson Navigation.

Regarding the increasing demand, first the ASA (American Standardization Agency), then the ISO developed the first standards, it explains why the containers measurements are still expressed in feet today. ASA set up the lengths to 10, 20, 30 and 40 feet for a height and a width of 2.44 m.

The ISO TC-104 committee took over to define the detailed standard (dimensions, materials, constraints, etc…) applied to containers. This standard is given in the ISO 668 (1995) and ISO 1496-1 (1990).

Types of containers

Among the principal types of containers, we can find:

• STANDARD 20'
• STANDARD 40'
• HIGH CUBE 40'
• HIGH CUBE 45'
• OPEN TOP 20'
• OPEN TOP 40'
• REEFER 20'
• REEFER 40'
• REEFER HIGH CUBE 40'
• REEFER HIGH CUBE 45'
• FLAT RACK 20'
• FLAT RACK 40'
• FLAT RACK COLLAPSIBLE 20'
• FLAT RACK COLLAPSIBLE 40'
• PLATFORM 20'
• PLATFORM 40'