Detailed Overview of Ocean Shipping Container Ships, Types and Sizes: A Guide for Shippers

Standard Container

You might be pleasantly surprised to hear that this is one of the most popular standard containers. This container's portability and modest weight are the significant reasons for its attractiveness. This container is made up of materials like steel and aluminium. The dry goods transported in this container include pallets, crates, boxes, and barrels. Standard ISO shipping containers are usually of 20 feet (6.06 m) and 40 feet in length (12.2m).

High Cube Container

A high cube is about a foot taller and nearly equivalent to a conventional dry container, although it provides additional storage space. As opposed to a regular container, a high cube container's full load may about 10 cbm more. All high cubes are 6 inches taller than standard ISO shipping containers; therefore, if you add 6 inches to the height, you gain 19% more cubic space inside. The outer measurements would be the same as any other container.

Open-Top Freight Container

You may be able to use an open-top shipping container when your shipment is too tall for a standard dry container but not big enough to require a high cube unit. Of course, the top of this kind of container isn't open in the usual sense of the word. Instead, it is covered by a tarp to protect it from the elements. It can also be loaded and unloaded from above using a crane.

Flat Rack Freight Container

A large, horizontal metal frame known as a flat rack cargo container is fastened to a ship's deck using detachable steel locks. They are utilized for the transportation of oversized and heavy freight.

They can extend for up to 60 feet or more, with a usual height of about ten feet. Some include lockable doors at both ends, while others have modular panels along one side, so you may secure your cargo using chains and ratchet straps. Depending on their size, they are constructed from a robust aluminium alloy and weigh about 18 tonnes when empty.

Flat-rack freight containers transport massive things that cannot fit inside a standard shipping container, such as engines, heavy machinery, wind turbines, tanks, etc.

Reefer contain

The "reefer containers" refers to portable refrigerators. These containers are perfectly usable to transport products that need to be kept cold. They can be used to maintain any temperature between -30 and +30 degrees Celsius. Medication, photographic film, flowers, dairy, meat, and seafood goods can all be shipped in reefer containers. The most common sizes for reefer containers are 10 feet, 20 feet, and 40 feet. A 40-foot reefer container provides the maximum storage space. However, high-cube models offer only a little bit more.

Ventilated Containers

Ventilated storage facilities closely resemble standard storage boxes. The main distinction between regular dry and vented storage boxes is that the latter includes ventilation options while the former does not. Vented storage boxes are widely used to ship products like coffee or cocoa beans because of their high moisture content, requiring ventilation while in transit. The conventional dry storage box is used to transport dry goods in general. Ventilated containers generally come in sizes of 20′.