How containers are shaping the globe | Economic Times

Twenty years ago, on May 30, 2001, a global event took place that you would only have noticed if you were on a ship or near a port. The funeral of Malcolm McLean, the man who popularised shipping containers, took place that day and container ships across the world blew their whistles to honour the man who changed their industry – and whose legacy continues to shape the world today.We had an unexpected example of this on August 15 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his Red Fort speech barricaded behind a wall of shipping containers. As Marc Levinson explains in The Box, his history of the container revolution, rather than a means of security, they are usually seen as a threat: “Containers can be just as efficient for smuggling undeclared merchandise, illegal drugs, undocumented immigrants, and terrorist bombs as for moving legitimate cargo.” Ports now need radiation detectors for ‘dirty bombs’ laced with radioactive debris.The PM has shown his enthusiasm for containers before. In January this year he flagged off what was billed as the world’s first container train that could carry double stacked containers for long hauls (though McLean had worked on double-stack railways back in 1977). In April this year plans were announced for 10 container manufacturing projects in Bhavnagar, part of a plan to develop the city as a container hub.McLean’s story has been told like many entrepreneur hero narratives with a ‘eureka’ moment when, as a young trucker in 1937, he spent hours lined up at Jersey City’s wharf waiting for his material to be unloaded. He wondered why his entire truck could not be loaded, which lead him to conceptualise a metal box of standard size which could be rapidly hauled by crane, with minimal need for labour. Levinson debunks this by pointing out that the idea was already around, for example, with the Army using standardised containers to transport the possessions of military families as they moved between bases. McLean’s real insight was to understand that “transport companies’ true business was moving freight rather than operating ships or trains.”This might seem obvious, but transport companies grew out of operators of trucks, rail cars or ships, and discarding their legacy business was not easy. McLean’s insight that movement, not means, mattered helped cut through the negotiations involved in standardisation. McLean’s first container adapted ship sailed from New Jersey to Texas in 1956 and the industry immediately started planning similar systems. US agencies stepped in to ensure standardisation, and Levinson details the discussions, over everything from size, load bearing capacity and the corner fittings that enabled locking and lifting. McLean had a patent on fittings, and a key concession he made was to release his rights, enabling widespread and economic manufacturing of containers.Asian countries which lacked the legacy port systems of the West benefited since they could build new ports set up for containers. Much of China’s economic success has come from its embracement of containerisation, with the largest manufacturing and transport systems in the world. It also rapidly adapted to how containers reshaped ports, shifting from centuries old wharfs near city centres, to entirely new developments on undeveloped parts of the coast. Labour needs were slashed, destroying the long-standing power of stevedore unions. Refrigerated containers changed the way we eat, bringing fresh foods, like fruits, from around the world. In every way it enabled the globalised economy with its extended, yet rapid-response supply chains.Containers also had an impact in other areas. Architects and builders utilised their availability first to create site offices that could be moved once a project ended, but then also for more permanent purposes. Containers were adapted for residence in circumstances ranging from natural disasters to cheap student housing. Restaurants and cafes have come up in containers. Covered bridges have been made by mounting a series of containers on piers and removing the partitions between them. Qatar is building a temporary stadium for the 2022 World Cup from repurposed containers, which could become the future model for one-off sporting events.The pandemic has reinforced the importance of containers. In the early stages, as consumer demand plummeted, shipping companies unloaded many ships, only to be wrong footed once demand picked up. This combination of bad planning, and fewer workers to oversee movement, has caused a massive imbalance in container distribution across the world, which is likely to slow down the global recovery. Matters weren’t helped when the Ever Given, one of a new class of gigantic ships which can carry over 20,000 containers, got stuck in the Suez Canal, throwing container movement across the world out of gear. Perhaps our PM was sending a subtle signal with his Red Fort Container speech, that there is no escaping this world within which we are now contained.