What are the most common steel shipping containers for sale?

Let’s take a look at the various sizes and astounding quantity of shipping containers for sale. The large volume will help you understand where there is such a strong market across the US. You can quickly and easily get shipping container prices here from our preferred partners, and from there, you’ll likely be able to make a more informed choice about what’s best for your needs.

The Most Common Container Size?

Though there are specialized shipping containers you may be able to use for your shipments if it is especially large or oddly shaped, the vast majority of shipping container dimensions are considered to be “standard intermodal container” sizes. Though they’re commonly just referred to as steel shipping containers or freight or cargo containers, they may also be called a sea or ocean container, or an ISO container.

We are focusing on the 20 ft shipping containers as the most flexible, common in private sales and with the most residential and farm uses due to ease of transport.

20-Foot Container Usage and Details

If you are considering a 20ft shipping container , also known as intermodal containers, are a large, standardized container for freight transport. They can be used across different modes of transport, including ship, rail and truck (without unloading and reloading cargo), and are used primarily to store and ship materials. Steel shipping container dimensions vary, and there are a number of different standard sizes. 20 foot shipping containers are extremely popular and available in all 50 states due to the common use of them in every industry. It’s estimated that there are about 25 million of them in the world as of 2020.

20 foot steel shipping containers can come equipped with forklift pockets for loaded containers, as well. Because of how versatile they are, these 20 foot shipping containers are some of the most common ones to see on the road.

The maximum cargo size permitted for 20′ containers, due to interior dimensions, is as follows:

  • Length: 19 ft., 3 inches
  • Width: 7 ft., 8 inches
  • Height: 7 ft., 9 7/8 inches
  • Door Opening: 7 ft., 8 inches wide, 7 ft., 5 inches tall
  • Cubic Capacity: 1,165 cu. ft.

Just how many 20ft shipping containers we talking about?

There are currently almost 20 million total shipping containers in circulation worldwide with the number of active shipping containers at more then 7 million. 20ft shipping containers represent the largest amount of any size from this sample. In total, steel shipping containers make around 200 million trips a year, according to Billie Box.

Where the heck do These shipping containers come from?

Approximately 97% of all shipping containers are manufactured in China. This is due to a lower cost to manufacture in China and that much of the world’s products are produced in China. The liner shipping industry has spent over US$300 billion in more than a dozen countries on the purchase of new vessels that can carry increasingly astonishing amounts of containers. Many of these containers stay in their final destination which is how so many come to be available for sale in the aftermarket. You can search our dealers in your area and see over 500 for sale or rent at any time. Ultimately the logisitics and transportation authorities and port cities end up with both control and inventory of every container that enters the country. While the transportation of containers is generally pretty steady and only changes seasonally due to demand, recent events have impacted the industry. The shipping container transportation laws of the US and local laws due to COVID-19 in 2020 have cause breaks in the flow as safety precautions are put in place in port cities.