Introduction

Summary

Without the container the global village would still be a concept, not a reality…

Globalisation is the hallmark of our times. It is well-nigh impossible to escape the material and cultural webs spun by oil and energy companies, automobile firms, media corporations, tobacco and junk food conglomerates, the internet and many other transnational agents. But, although globalisation has become a household word, there is little recognition that our world could not function without the complex system of maritime transport sustaining intercontinental and regional trade.

Container shipping stands at the quality end of that infrastructure. At the turn of the millennium its 13.5 million boxes carried over ninety percent of the non-bulk trade of the world. The total value of all container cargoes exceeded seventy percent of all world trade. After annual growth figures that more often than not ran into double figures, the turnover of all ports in the world has surpassed 200,000,000 containers per year. Although it cannot possibly match oil and bulk shipping in volume and tonne-miles, container shipping is the preeminent sector of the world's deep-sea merchant fleet. And through its spectacular growth and span, its still rising productivity and declining freight rates, and continuous improvements to the efficiency and quality of its maritime and door-to-door services, it has had a powerful stimulating effect on world trade - an aspect that, as the industry itself, is often overlooked.

The only “global” business history to give container shipping its full due was Fiona Gilmore's Brand Warriors, in which C.C. Tung, chairman, president and CEO of Orient Overseas Container Lines (OOCL) of Hong Kong took his place alongside fourteen leaders of other global companies. Apart from giving revealing insights into the philosophy of his management of OOCL and the corporate strategy of the company, Tung also asserted that

global container transportation provid[es] the vital link to world trade…Without the container the global village would still be a concept, not a reality, because manufacturing would still be a local process. Car companies, for instance, would still have to insist that their components suppliers were located within 150 miles of their factory, as they once did.

The reasons for this neglect are complex, but several features stand out. Shipping and ports, as indeed all seaborne activity, are rarely included in broader economic, trade or business studies.