Input: LOGISTICS
Shipping forecaSt
Set fair for
environmental
benefitS
Container ships that transport goods across the globe goods and products are carried by container ships; everything in
might look like carbon-crunchers but in fact they’re more a typical home (from sofas to mattresses) or business (from chairs
energy efficient than many realise – and improving all the and laptops to projectors) will have seen the inside of a container
time. Tom Henry views the progress made by the industry. at some point in its life.
U
nsurprisingly, most of us do not spend time reflecting on The consumer benefits of this include increased choice and product
how the goods we rely on and enjoy, on a daily basis, get availability. The availability of affordable imported consumer goods
onto store shelves. How our PCs and pencils get to our has also boosted living standards around the world. For example,
desks; how tangerines appear in our fruit bowls; how suits from the cost of transporting goods from factories to markets halfway
New York end up in Paris. around the world is typically one per cent or less of the retail price,
meaning more people can afford more.
Instead, it is often taken for granted that a plentiful supply of these
things will always be constantly available to both consumers and The USA, for example, imported four times as many varieties of
businesses. Only a limited number of us are really aware of the goods in 2002 as in 1972. Asia has become a lead supplier of many
sophisticated and global logistics chain that enables world trade, household and office products to Europe and the USA with 12 of the
and the work being done to ensure that this is as environmentally- world’s leading 20 container ports in 2006 located in Asian countries.
friendly as possible. China handles more containers than any other nation and has seen
tremendous growth in exports in the last 10 years.
At the heart of that chain lies ‘containerisation’. It may appear a
rather grand statement to claim that the humble container ‘box’ But along with such growth, of course, comes increasing pressure
has been as revolutionary to people’s lives as the World Wide on the environment in which this industry operates.
Web, but it is a claim that does bear closer examination.
Today’s global population is growing rapidly and is becoming
Let’s start with some context. Fifty years ago a realisation was increasingly demanding. Meeting this demand requires a way to
made; that if goods are put in a standard box and they are transport goods across the globe in mass volumes. Container
transported in that box around the globe rather than as individual shipping is a reliable way to do this which is why it is the preferred
goods, the speed and efficiency of the transportation process option for carrying semi- and fully-manufactured products.
increases, and transportation costs drop. This incredibly simple
idea revolutionised global trade. Today trucks, trains, and ships Shipping is one of the most regulated industries in the area of
all move standardised boxes or containers seamlessly; creating a environmental protection and the container shipping industry
highly efficient, joined-up form of cargo transport and logistics that has made many innovative strides voluntarily to improve its
was previously unthinkable. environmental impact over the years.
The first ship to carry cargo in containers as we know them It is not always helpful to draw comparisons, given the different
travelled between Port Newark and Houston in the USA in 1956. roles of each mode of transport. Any industry comparisons must
The industry itself has grown enormously since then, and now consider container shipping’s vast economies of scale, with the
touches every part of the world. Between 1982 and 2005 it grew at industry moving enormous volumes of goods around the globe.
a rate of over three times that of world GDP and 40 per cent more
than world trade growth. Now, most of the world’s manufactured Independent studies show that for every kilometre that a container
ecoexecutive | 86
Shipping.indd 86 18/4/08 16:52:54
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