We are in this article going to discuss the top 10 container companies in the world. Before we move on to discuss the top 10 container companies let us first understand what containers are and what are they used for. Containers are an indispensable part of shipping and world trade. They are huge and are made to transport bulky goods across the sea and ocean. Without this cargo transportation is not possible. It is a huge metal box rather. It can be used even in road, air and rail transport. It follows a standard design and size as it has to fit in to the mode of transport that is being used.

Container is an integral part of today’s commercial world. The logistics cannot be even imagined without this right. Nevertheless, the story of how containers originated is also equally interesting. It was in England in the year 1795 that the first container was made by a man named Bejamin Outram. He used them to carry coal. By the year 1830 containers were being used in railways to carry cargo. These were all simple timber boxes. Most of these were open as a result they could not carry anything that would spoil on exposure to weather. It was only in 1900 that closed containers were used.

The United Kingdom was the first to use these. With time it became popular in the United States. From 1926 to 1947 there was revolution in the containers. They were now used in road transport too. During world war two these containers were extensively used. In 1955 it finally got the correct form when a company named Malcolm Mclean. They also developed the containers that are used in modern shipping. It was quite a challenge though. A twist lock mechanism was attached to the four corners of the containers so that it could be lifted by cranes. They got the original design patented. This was later sold to the other companies and slowly came up many more companies across the world that makes containers. We are now going to discuss about the top 10 container companies.

The major advantages that are associated with containerization are that it enhanced the speed of international trade and also reduced the cost of it. While before you needed ten ships to transport a certain amount of material. With containers you could perhaps do it with as less as four ships. It also ensures that the commodities are carried in the best of conditions and are not damaged easily. It also made loading and unloading of ships an easy task. The ISO (International organization for standardization  has made some standard quality benchmarks and size benchmarks for containers. Some examples are R-668, R- 1897, etc. These are the world class standards that the container companies follow. This standard is required to ensure that the containers can be loaded to any mode of transport easily.

Let’s now move on to the top 10 container companies in the world today. Well to start with the first company that tops the list is Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha it is a Japan based company that was incorporated in 1870. It is the world’s largest container companies. It also operates internationally. It is a core container shipping company. The second name on the list is of the Evergreen marine corporation. It was founded in China by a man named Dr. Yung-Fa Chang. It started in the year 1968. Today it has offices all across the world and runs about one hundred and sixty container ships. If we look at the number of ships it operates it can be considered as one of the largest container companies.

The third name in the list of top 10 container companies would be CMA-CGM which happens to be the leading container company in France. It was started in 1978. As the name suggests this is a merger of previously existing companies. The company today has about three hundred and fifty fleet ships that operate over one hundred and fifty routes all across the globe. The fourth of the top 10 container companies is the Maersk. It is a Danish company. It came into international trade way back in the year 1904. It is considered to be one of the most reputed container companies in the world. The company today has a fleet of about five hundred container ships.

As we move to the fifth name in the list of top 10 container companies. We have to mention MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), it is a Swiss container company. It came into international business in 1970. It has a whopping four hundred and fifty six container ships to its credit. It is rated among the most extensive cargo companies in the world. The sixth name in this coveted list is of Hapag-Lloyd. It is a German based company. Established in 1970, it is a result of merger between two prestigious companies in the world named Hamburg and Lloyd. It caters to about five million containers that are operated by a fleet strength of around one hundred and thirty container ships.

We now move ahead in the list of top 10 container companies. We move to the seventh company that features in today’s list. It is called APL (American President Lines) it was founded in 1848. It just celebrated one hundred and sixty years. It has been given this position because it was the first company that used an extra-large (fifty three feet) container on its vessel. This reduced the transportation cost by leaps and bounds. A company that deserves a mention in the list of the American President Lines is the COSCO (the China Ocean Shipping Company). The operation of this company spreads across forty nations and has a fleet size of one hundred and fifty container ships. It is one of the leading names in the market. Much trusted and appreciated name in the business.

As we move to the last two names in the list of the top 10 container companies we must say that all of them are equally successful and have done a lot for the development of the world trade. The ninth name in the list is Hanjin. It is one of the largest Asian cargo companies. It has the capacity to operate over one billion tonnes of cargo a year. The company has sixty ships which operate for it in the high sea. It collaborated with COSCO in 2003. The last name in the list is of CSCL (China Shipping Container Lines). It is a company that is based out of Shanghai. It was started in 1997. It has its shares listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchange.

This is the extensive list of the top 10 container companies. I hope this will help you to understand the concept of the containers and how they operate better.

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