Containerization (1)

Containerization and Globalization terms, except their familiar sounding, have more or less
the same time life. For someone who these terms are completely unknown, they do really
have a meaning of opposite terms. The first one might mean that things become contained
from the rest of the world and the second one, already famous for its use, means that
something is becoming world trend. Despite of the previous misunderstanding, the two
terms have a lot in common.
If we want to define the first term we must go back in history. In the late 70s, world
superpowers decided that the Cold War era had finished. They started cooperation
between each other in every sector. Their satellite countries, which until that time also
participated in the Cold War, followed and began interactions between them.
Infrastructures were expanding and improving, international agreements were being signed,
vast capital were invested and upgrading scale economy plans were discussed in a daily basis
at any place in the world. The result was an unprecedented trade booming, something the
world had never seen before.
All those achievements which are described above would have never been achieved if a lorry
driver, someone who had been bored waiting for long hours the workers to load and unload
his truck, decided to do something about his wasted time. He had the brilliant idea of
loading his cargo from his truck to the ship at once using ship or shore crane. For that reason
he had to make his truck carrier stronger in order to have the adequate strength to afford
the weight of the cargo. For that purpose he reinforced the wooden carriers edges with
metal bars. He modified the corners of his carrier and established special devices which
allowed the carrier safe connection with the cranes winch and his lorry platform. There
were also doors in the back side of the carrier for loading. He invented the box.
There were only pros in his invention. The boxes were loaded at the producing site and
unloaded at the consuming place only once. Soon, the boxes were standardized and
adopted to any transportation vehicle. They were further developed by becoming lighter
and safer. The loading time was reduced to zero. Nowadays you need only seconds to load
one of them onboard. They can be loaded in ship cargo holds, train wagons, truck platforms
and planes.
His revolutionary idea reshaped the entire transportation industry. The contemporary large
box-ships or containerships are giants compared to the first box-ship which carried only
sixty boxes. The triple-E Maersks is capable to carry 18000 (yes thousands!) boxes. It is
because of her economy of scale which makes her so profitable. The more boxes a ship
carries, the lower freights can be charged, maintaining the companys profit at the same
levels. But there are some issues: Where in hell, can she find so many boxes to carry??