1) A container ship travels the equivalent of three-quarters of the way to the moon and back in one year during its regular travel across the oceans.
2) The largest ships can cost over 200 million dollars to build.
3) It's estimated that there are 10,000 shipping containers lost at sea every year. That's almost one container every hour! Lost containers are often damaged by waves and sink quickly, but some may float for a little while. Those that do float, tend to do so just below the surface.
4) If you were to line up the containers on just one ship they would easily stretch nearly halfway around the planet. If you stacked them up, and they would reach to nearly 7,500 Eiffel Towers and if you unloaded their cargo onto trucks the traffic would stretch for 60 miles.
5) In 2011, the 360 commercial ports in the United States received goods from abroad worth $1.73 trillion. The U.S. relies on shipping to bring in two-thirds of its oil supply.
6) If all the containers in the world were to be lined up on one ship, that ship would stretch half way around the planet.
7) Containers have been used as clinics during disaster relief, such as after the earthquakes in Christchurch New Zealand.
8) The largest ships can store 745 million bananas in nearly 15,000 containers. That’s about one for every person in Europe and North America.
9) Approximately 97% of all shipping containers are manufactured in China.
10) At present, there are around 1.5 million sailors employed globally, with the Philippines producing the highest number of seafarers.
If you have any questions in regards to worldwide shipping, please contact our team.