I’ve traveled all over the USA, and I’ve noticed (especially along highways and train routes) tons of shipping containers with various “brands” (of… shipping companies?) on them, in random lots/yards, used for various things, or seemingly not being used at all. How do people acquire these? Don’t the companies want them back?
(Apologies for what I’m sure is awful terminology. I don’t know anything about this, which is why I’m here!)
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More goods are shipped to the US from China than the reverse. I heard it is more cost effective for them to build new containers than to have empty ones shipped back. There’s more to the economics of the supply chain (like US producers would like to be sending more stuff internationally) but I think that’s the gist of it.
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Shipping containers are certified when they are manufactured, proving that they are strong enough to not pose a hazard to the other cargo bolted to them. Years at sea, and this certification lapses. They are still probably fine, but the cost to confirm that exceeds the cost to make a new one. If you compare them to their scrap value, they are really pretty handy things. Shippers send them back, when they can get the port time, but the actual lifetime is much longer than their legal lifetime.
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