During the pandemic, the surging demand led to a shortage of containers in some places, thus significantly tightening the container supply at major export hubs. In addition, due to severe port congestion, the capacity of container ships has reached its limit.

The shortage of container and ship capacity has led to a substantial increase in container lease fees, ship lease fees, as well as the prices of containers and ships that would normally have been retired or recycled under normal circumstances.

The Through Transport Club (TT Club) stated that since many old containers are still in use, there is a higher risk in adopting the solution of using any available container to cope with the market crisis.

The TT Club said, “There are rumors that containers that have been retired are being put back into use, and this practice is likely to bring more challenges to everyone in the supply chain.”

The TT Club suggests that as the age of containers in transit increases, additional maintenance is required for them. Maintaining the maintenance standards of in-service containers is crucial for old containers to avoid the risk of serious structural failures. Some of these failures, such as corrosion, physical wear and tear, and the breakage of door hinges, bolts, and locking devices, may all lead to serious accidents.

In fact, one shipper said that he was shocked by the quality of the containers that arrived at the warehouse. The containers were severely rusted, and the floors were dirty and obviously hadn’t been cleaned properly.

He said, “I complained to the shipping company, and they pretty much said that if I didn’t like their container standards, I should go elsewhere. But that’s obviously not possible, because it took us a month to get these containers, let alone ensure the safety of the transportation.”

The TT Club said that another key aspect of the structural safety of containers is their stacking capacity, and pointed out that on Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs), containers can be stacked up to 11 layers high.

The TT Club warned, “When in transit, containers near the bottom of the stack with serious structural defects pose a risk of container collapse and falling into the water.”

At the same time, there is a concern that many old container ships that were originally destined for the scrap yard are being put back into use on trade routes, which is a great test for both the ships and the crew.

One carrier said that the routine suitability inspection of the ship that he used to conduct before chartering the ship no longer exists now. He said, “We just repair the ship in accordance with the specifications. In my opinion, this is not popular internally, and we will eventually pay the price for it.”