Is the container the most important invention of the past 100 years?
Listen to the latest edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast — your free weekly briefing on the stories shaping shipping
Seventy years on from the birth of container shipping, Lloyd’s List’s senior reporter Joshua Minchin evaluates just how important the humble container is in the history of global trade
IN 1956, SS Ideal X sailed from New Jersey to Houston with 58 containers on board, marking the birth of modern commercial container shipping.
Malcom McClean’s vision of unitised, efficient and relatively cheap global freight has evolved into a global network, criss-crossing the world’s oceans to connect businesses with consumers across continents.
Has there been a more important innovation in global trade? What would Malcom McClean say if he walked into a modern container terminal? And is the everyday consumer aware of just how much their lives have been changed by the development of the shipping container?
Joining Joshua on the Lloyd’s List podcast are:
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Joe Kramek, chief executive, World Shipping Council
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Henning Morgen, group historian, Maersk
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