Shipping Containers

Shipping containers sit stacked at a port in Bayonne, N.J., on Oct. 15. Supply chain problems are disrupting the global economy, causing delays and a shortage of containers.Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Ah, the unassuming shipping container. It's really nothing more than a big steel box with a couple of doors. At any given time, millions of containers are piled on ships plying the world's waterways. Battered by weather and waves, they are packed with just about anything you can imagine — exotic fruits and vegetables, cheap clothing and electronics, parts for cars and trucks.

"Globalization, as we know it today, would not have been possible without the container," says Marc Levinson, an economist, a historian and the author of two books on shipping containers.

These days during the coronavirus pandemic, with the holidays fast approaching, jampacked container ships have gotten stuck in traffic at ports, which is choking the economy. Delayed containers have become both a symptom of and a contributor to global supply chain problems. But if one looks back, cargo has generally moved more easily and cheaply now than it did before these big boxes came around, making them almost indispensable to the global economy.  READ MORE...