Shipping containers may well be the answer for city planners who seek to create a more mixed society in their urban areas. Containers can be converted into accommodation cheaply and set onto site in a fraction of the time that their bricks and mortar equivalent can be, and as such can bring the investment in…
One of the drawbacks of shipping containers is that while they are portable, up to now they have required heavy lifting equipment and large trucks to move them any greater distance than around your backyard. Containers are lauded for their portability but you generally need quite a bit of kit to do it! There are…
The US$5.5 billion Panama Canal Expansion Project has opened, allowing much larger container ships to cross the Americas far more quickly than they could before. Is this good news for shippers and trade as a whole? The immediate answer is, to a point. The cost of getting goods from China to US clients via the…
Two companies, one in India and the other in the UK have found a novel application for shipping container conversions – as portable hotels. They can be used for a variety of purposes, near major construction sites where staff need to be housed close to the site, music festivals, or just semi permanent hotels near…
Two industries have real problems yet might be able to help each other out. Shipping container lines have massive overcapacity while, due to regulations and an infestation of sea lice, the salmon farming industry is facing a rapid fall in output. Could mothballed ships be used as salmon farms? Cargo shipping overcapacity A few years…
Did you know that the average electric drill is only ever used a total of 13 minutes from the time it is bought for its entire useful life? DIY retailer Bunnings sells a cordless one for AU$299 – or AU$23 a minute of use. Let’s face it, we all have too much stuff lying around…
Shipping container housing may well be a solution to the real problems of housing affordability in Australia. With their ease of construction and low cost to build, using shipping containers may well be the answer to the high costs of housing in the continent’s major metropolitan areas. So, what’s the problem? Australia has some of…
Surfing the internet you will find a bit of a rebellion taking place among certain factions of architects. Since around 2011 a growing number of them have been questioning the benefits of shipping container architecture. While they have some strong arguments we at Gateway Container Sales aren’t in full agreement. Let’s look at their reasons…
Over the last few years we at Gateway Container Sales have written a lot about various types of shipping container homes. They are renowned for being cheap and easy to build, with much of the work done off site before the containers are effectively dropped into position and fitted together. Where low cost high density…
On the 17 June 2013, the five year old container ship MOL Comfort started to break up off Mumbai, India. It was gradual, with steel plates buckling and letting water into the hold, before the cracks in the hull eventually lead to it snapping in half after the ship caught fire. Luckily the crew were able…