Damage Cost: Shipping Containers Lost at Sea

Posted : 01/13/14 8:14 AM

After bulk cargo, transport containers account for about 90% of all of the goods transported into the planet. There are currently over 5 million shipping containers in passage to the whole world’s oceans transporting most of the buyer things that we purchase and use in everyday life. While this is just a tiny percentage of the total amount of containers that are shipped each year it comes with an estimated price of $370 million which adds appreciably to freight prices overall. However, there are also other costs related to losing shipping containers to the sea. On the surface this looks alright but many containers feature noxious materials which slowly leach into the environment over time having a long term adverse effect. Additionally it is believed that these new artificial reefs might be creating highways in the shipping lanes for the migration of species into environmentally-sensitive areas. The potential for smaller boats and pleasure craft to collide with one of these loose containers increases every year but they are difficult to locate and salvage. Floating containers also frequently wash up on-shore and get broken up to create another type of environmental risk. Although containers have these downsides they remain the most effective means yet devised for bulk passage of products and their introduction greatly reduced cargo losses at sea. You will find current studies underway that is analyzing approaches to improve the design of containers as well as to seek better approaches to locate and salvage them all to minimize both financial losses and the environmental damage that they cause. In the transport containers could be made to float and might be easily traceable using cheap GPS technology, making the job of finding potentially hazardous cargo which has been lost at sea easier. For more info you’ll be able to contact http://www.bmishipping.com/ to discuss all your shipping container needs.