An efficient way of managing empty containers

A lot is being talked these days about the handling of empty containers at ports and ICDs. They occupy precious space and may at times lead to congestion and increased costs.

The concept of collapsible containers is gaining ground as it looks to be the only feasible solution to arrest this problem. While the research is on in different parts of the world, none of these innovative designs have entered commercial production. The maritime industry waits eagerly for the product launch.

Jagadeesh Napa

Innovation in cargo containers is not new. But a container that collapses to one-fourth its size is something new. The standard 20-foot container that is being used today is the result of more than 200-year evolution process that happened in cargo-carrying containers and dates back to mid-1700s when wooden containers (crates) were first developed. The usage of steel containers (of various dimensions) was first started by the US Army in the early 1950s for transporting engineering goods and supplies from United States to Japan and Korea. The 20-foot standard container was developed by Malcolm McLean, a trucking company owner in the US during this time and this standard is still in use today.

The container logistics includes transportation of loaded containers from one place to another. In the process, many a time, these containers are shipped empty during the return journey due to lack of cargo. According to a study by Drewry Shipping Consultants, the share of empty containers in the overall container transportation has been hovering at 20 per cent in the last two decades and is expected to rise to 23 per cent by 2015. This tends to rise even further in times of economic crisis as it leads to imbalances in global trade, e.g. during the ASEAN crisis as well as in the global economic crisis that started in 2008. An increasing number of containers are sent back to their places of origin during the crises. The periodical shifts in places of demand and supply also cause imbalances in trade. As a result, empties have to be rerouted to relocated hubs, which are often done in full ship loads. This is called as repositioning of containers.

Empty containers were always considered as an unnecessary burden by the carriers (road, rail and ocean) because they fetch them lesser revenue, and occupy the same space of a loaded container. It is also a burden for the importers and exporters as the freight rates charged by the carriers on the empties are many times disproportional. Ports across the world also face the problem of storing empties in their yards by the container leasing companies. This results in congestion at ports, revenue loss and wastage of space. During times like recession and economic crisis, empty container movement will lead to increased repositioning costs for the shippers and container owners alike.

Collapsible containers
Innovation in container design has become a matter of interest for quite some time, especially to help in unclogging the ports. As space is a constraint, the concept of collapsible containers makes sense for shippers, carriers and ports, at least until a totally new and revolutionised design comes up on the horizon. Therefore, the next stop in the evolution process of the cargo containers will be collapsible containers.
They save both space and cost. Some innovations to this extent were witnessed and further research is still going on in this field. Many of them were not successful as they involved manual folding process. Assembling and dismantling these containers took too long and the materials used to develop them were not structurally strong.

Of all the innovations, two designs of collapsible containers look to be promising. While one is developed by professors at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India, the other design is by The Netherlands-based company – Cargoshell BV.

IIT Delhi design
The IIT Delhi design was initiated by a former banker Avinder Bindra. He approached IIT Delhi to develop a feasible design for collapsible containers and ultimately funded the project. Anoop Chawla and Sudipto Mukherjee from IIT Delhi were the people involved in developing the design. They together with Bhindra redesigned a standard container which can be folded sideways and can be loaded from the top. They claim that their design is capable of collapsing or erecting the container hydraulically in four minutes. A special hydraulic platform is used for this purpose and can fold the container to one-fourth its original size.

The folding happens sideways and the walls, doors, top and bottom can be packed into four sheets length wise. “With our design, ships will be able to carry four containers in the space occupied by one. This means 75 per cent less trailers or ships are required and helps in much faster turnaround of ships,” said IIT’s Chawla. “It also means less traffic and so less pollution, not to mention tremendous reduction in costs to shippers.”

As the containers using design have the exact dimensions of a standard 20-foot container, handling equipment like cranes and reach stackers need not be modified. The IIT team estimates that if 75 per cent of empty containers shipped in 2010 were foldable, 25 million TEU a year in ocean transportation could be saved, which is 50 per cent of the total volume of empty containers shipped, and this would save US$ 1,000 per empty container. Bhindra expects the prototype to be ready by the first half of February followed by certification process from agencies such as Lloyds.

Click here for the animation on how this design works

The fact remains that containers built using this design should need the special hydraulic platform for collapsing and erecting them. Two important issues can be derived from this – one is the availability of the hydraulic platforms and the other is the time taken to fold or unfold the container. All the container logistics hubs like ICDs, CFSs and ports should be equipped with these special platforms as non-availability of these platforms at any facility may render the folded containers unusable. Also, given the huge number of empty containers at these facilities, more of such platforms may be required. Bindra says that hydraulic platforms should be based at all the points of origin of empty containers like factories, ICDs etc. Each of these platforms is expect to cost around the cost of two containers. “It is not suitable for those users where the need is just for a few containers at a time,” admits Bhindra.

While four minutes is a pretty short time compared to more than an hour in previous attempts, Bindra says that efforts are on to bring down this time to three minutes. If these are taken care of, then this design has the potential of revolutionising the way empties are managed.

Cargoshell deisgn
Netherlands-based Cargoshell came out with another design for collapsible containers. Unlike the IIT Delhi design, Cargoshell used composites (fibre-strengthened plastics) instead of steel to manufacture its collapsible container. Being an environment-conscious company, it has emphasised on reducing CO2 emissions while handling and transporting these containers. This line of thought has become their main focus in marketing this concept to the world. Christened as Cargoshells, these containers are much lighter and less energy is needed to handle them by a crane. The company claims that Cargoshells are ideally suitable for temperature-controlled cargo transportation as the composites are better heat insulators compared to their steel counterparts.

A Cargoshell can be folded down from the top with side walls collapsing in-between the top and bottom. Here too, an external hydraulic machine is required to collapse and erect the Cargoshells. The doors on both sides are designed to roll upwards when open and can be closed by pulling them down just like a roller shutter. Akin to the IIT Delhi design, the collapsed Cargoshell too occupies one-fourth of the original size and saves 75 per cent space. The composite-built Cargoshells require relatively lesser electricity to maintain inside temperature, claims the company. Besides, there will be considerable CO2 reduction by replacing most of the steel in the container with composite material. Additional advantages of composite include its resistance to corrosion even while being exposed to open air and seawater, and its ability to be repaired in a more environmentally friendly way.

Unlike steel containers, the composite Cargoshell doesn’t interfere with GPS signals and transceiver-equipped Cargoshells can be remotely tracked through transport, transfer and storage. Electronic equipment can easily be added to this composite container which will monitor and report the condition of its contents during transport.

On the flipside, the company has not mentioned about the strength of the composite material. It is not known whether Cargoshells are structurally strong to take maximum cargo weight as that of a steel container. Though folding and erection of Cargoshells look simpler compared to the earlier design, the company did not mention about the exact time taken for this. Further, each Cargoshell is supposed to cost around 3 times that of a standard 20 foot container, which is quite high considering the 25 million containers that are handled every year.

The company claims that Cargoshells are ideal for temperature-controlled cargo, which includes perishable foods, fruits and vegetables, pharmaceutical products and other such cargo. These types of cargo are mostly light weight and it is not known if dry and heavier cargo like engineering goods, etc. can be stuffed into the Cargoshells. One has to wait and see for further developments to know about these facts.

To go into commercial production, both of these models have to go through intensive testing and lengthy certification processes conducted by various quality certification agencies like ISO, Bureau Veritas, DNV and Llyods Register among others. Any ocean-going equipment used in the maritime trade has to be certified by these agencies and once they come out all clear. But the biggest challenge that remains for these designs is to convince the industry and trade to shift to using collapsible containers instead of the current standard containers.