The Box Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus The Box

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Zusammenfassung von The Box

Name: The Box
Rating: 4.4 (38 reviews)
Author: Marc Levinson

Marc Levinson

How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

4.4 (38 Bewertungen)

24 Min.

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Kapitalismus & Freie Marktwirtschaft Internationale Wirtschaft Innovation

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What’s in it for me? Step into the box that revolutionized shipping and made globalization possible.

Have you been to a modern shipping port recently? Every day, thousands upon thousands of colorful containers, filled with every kind of good imaginable, from socks to iPods, are stacked and unstacked by enormous cranes and loaded onto massive ships where they’re sent off to the other side of the world: a marvel of order and efficiency.

Believe it or not, shipping used to be a slow and costly process. But the container turned the shipping industry on its head – and its impact reaches far beyond the shipping world.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how containers made everything so damn cheap;
why globalization would have been impossible without them; and
why the US army loves them.

It’s not containers themselves that are key, but how they’ve been used.

Have you ever thought about all the different places you’ve seen shipping containers? On trains, trucks and ships; some are even retrofitted to become people’s homes! But there's more to these ubiquitous industrial objects than meets the eye.

That’s because the container isn’t just a box, but the core of an extraordinarily system that transports goods all over the world at unbeatably low prices.

On April 26, 1958, when the first 58 containers ever to be launched shipped from Newark, New Jersey, to Houston, Texas, nobody could’ve predicted the world-changing impact they would have. But today, the incredible speed with which containers load and unload has cut transportation costs so drastically that it’s the go-to solution for practically every company.

For instance, in 1961, before international container use, ocean freight costs alone comprised 12 percent of the costs of US exports and 10 percent of those for imports. This expense, coupled with taxes and other transportation-related costs, meant that international trade was rarely profitable.

In fact, freight handling at ports used to be a major expense, but containers and the level of automation they make possible have greatly reduced these costs. Containers have also completely transformed the face of manufacturing: small, local operations have given way to huge companies that buy and sell globally, which has also enabled a reduction in consumer prices.

The container fundamentally altered the scale at which goods are traded. The companies that employed them became larger, better organized and more reliable, and it was all due to the container’s place in a highly efficient system of perfectly fitting components.

For instance, a 25-ton container of coffee at a factory in Malaysia can travel 9,000 miles to Los Angeles in just 16 days. From there, it can board a train to Chicago and then a truck to Cincinnati for a total trip of 11,000 miles in a mere 22 days. That’s 500 miles a day and the total cost of shipping is less than a single first-class plane ticket.

Container shipping dramatically altered the world’s ports.

When you think about a port, what’s the mental image you get? Well, if you’re imagining droves of sweating, muscle-bound workers, you might be surprised to learn that they’ve largely been replaced by heavy machinery, like cranes.

However, shipping once was an extremely labor-intensive business, with somewhere between 60 and 75 percent of all shipping costs being tied to the docks. As containers became increasingly prevalent, the demand for dock workers became less regular, which gave rise to both corrupt job hunting methods and stronger social bonds between workers.

Container shipping began with one man from the trucking business.

You might be surprised to hear that container shipping wasn’t invented by someone in the maritime world, but by an outsider. His name was Malcolm McLean, a self-made trucking mogul battling regulation.

In the wake of World War II, just about everything was regulated. Even the cost of shipping was fixed – and it was killing competition. In the trucking industry, the Interstate Commerce Commission, or the ICC, only let companies haul approved commodities on approved routes at approved rates.

The rise of container shipping in the United States rapidly transformed ports and jobs.

Handling containers is nothing like handling barrels and sacks. This change in the industry necessitated both new skilled workers and new ports.

The transformation of the Port of New York epitomizes how ports transformed worldwide:

Container standardization was an early goal – one that was difficult to attain.

For the components of a system to work interchangeably you need everyone involved to agree on some basic principles. But as we all know from the ever so complex task of choosing a place to eat out, reaching a consensus isn’t always easy.

So although containers were all the transportation world was talking about in the late 1950s, there was still no agreement on what shape and size they should be. The Marine Steel Corporation offered 30 different container models!

Container shipping fought an uphill battle and took years to gain its footing.

As with countless other game-changing innovations, the container faced many obstacles before it became the standard it is today. And, as is often the case, antiquated ways of thinking were what held it back.

One major roadblock in the spread of containerized transport was that ship line cartels set fixed shipping prices. These prices were based on an old mentality that costs should match the type of good being shipped, e.g., a per-mile price for coffee. So despite the fact that containers were faster and more efficient, though not necessarily capable of shipping more of any given good, the increased efficiency didn’t mean lower prices for consumers.

The breakthrough for container shipping was the Vietnam War.

When you think about the Vietnam War it’s unlikely that containers come to mind, but they actually played an essential role.

In the winter of 1965, the United States began quickly amassing troops in Vietnam. The result was a logistical catastrophe as the entire country only had one deepwater port, a single railroad line and a disconnected highway system.

Big up-front investments made container shipping a risky business.

While it’s possible to start a business today with little capital, the container business was always one of big investments. This was especially true for ports that had to spend on infrastructure to get their share of container traffic.

That’s because containerization meant only shipping through the few ports that were the best connected and equipped. If you wanted to be one of those lucky ports, you had to have more train connections, the best cranes and even better logistics, none of which came cheap.

In container shipping, scale became the name of the game.

While bigger isn’t always better, it definitely is when it comes to container shipping. So while the first container boom created an overcapacity for most shipbuilders and made container ships cheaper, container shippers, including McLean and his new company United State Lines, also began opting for bigger vessels.

That’s because bigger ships could operate with the same-sized crew and comparable fuel requirements as those half their size. The industry seized on what then became a lucrative cycle: lower operational costs per container also allowed shippers to cut their prices and receive more orders in return. Naturally, with more freight came more income, thereby enabling greater investments.

The global economy transformed when the container shipping system became cheap and interconnected.

The emergence of the container immediately affected the maritime world, but the impact containerization had on the global economy took some time to develop. In fact, it wasn’t until around 1977 that containers truly affected industries outside of shipping, like manufacturing and wholesaling.

Containers didn’t require warehouses and were harder to rob, yielding lower insurance rates and fewer damages. But the largest impact containers had on the global economy came when prices started to drop dramatically.

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Worum geht es in The Box?

The Box (2006) tells the tale of modern transportation’s poster child, the container, and how it revolutionized the shipping industry and enabled globalization. These blinks will take you on a detailed journey through this seemingly simple but revolutionary change in global systems of trade.

Wer The Box lesen sollte

Professionals in logistics, transportation or trading
People interested in globalization
Every economics and business student

Über den Autor

Marc Levinson is a journalist and author who combines economic and business strategy with a historical perspective. He has written five best-selling books and countless articles that digest complex economic issues into an easily understandable format.

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