12 December 2006

Where do used Shipping Containers go?

Have you ever wondered what happens to all those shipping containers that arrive here and other places around the world filled with cheap goods from China?
I hadn't but it is worth considering.
If our trade balance is not equal with China - that is, we send them as much as they send us - then what happens to the empty containers? No one is going to send an empty container back to the factories in China.

Read this fascinating post at "Honest" Things to learn more.

Update: Just take note that his previous post reveals himself as a conspiracy leaning fellow and so the idea regarding the shipping containers should be taken as an idea - not as a fact.
The comments on the Vox Popoli post add a number of alternative reasons for the imbalance.

Hat Tip: Vox Popoli

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I personally worry about crashing into one on a long sail. I think it is so wrong that things like that are chucked into the ocean.

Anonymous said...

Here is an article about them in California

http://caltrade.com/news/index.php?title=empty_shipping_containers_pile_up_as_tra&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Well, don't the ships have to return empty to China to get more stuff? Why wouldn't they take back some shipping containers?