| SEA TECHNOLOGY |
New container design aimed at eliminating the need to ship empty boxes
With nearly a quarter of the total container transport volume consisting of empty units, a new container has been patented which is designed to eliminate this problem.
The 20-foot container developed by Juan Ureta, Jesus Garcia and Francisco Aguilar, can be joined to other “Connectainers” to form a 40-foot container, or disconnected again, by two people in 30 minutes, according to The Maritime Executive.
Approximately 24 per cent of the total container transport volume consists of empty units, says Mr Aguilar, exactly 81.5 million empty TEU sailing an average of 14 days.
“That means 150 latest generation vessels of 21,000 TEU sailing the whole year non-stop.”
“Connectainer” is water tight, structurally resistant, and keeps the internal and external dimensions of present containers so it is compatible with multimodal transportation.
The developers say container lines would not need to replace all their stock, having 10 per cent “Connectainers” would be enough to alleviate the problem of transporting empty units as each connection/disconnection avoids three empty moves.