The practice of shipping goods from one state or continent to another has been around for a long period. And studies show that nearly everything we purchase either at the stores or malls arrive are transported by shipping companies. If you even take some time and trace the roots of the radio you are listening to or even the chair you are sitting on, the chances that they were shipped from abroad are pretty high.
About 90% of all commodities reach their consumers through the international shipping industry. This is mostly since shipping has proven to be the most affordable and reliable means of transporting international imports and exports. Aside from the price factor, ferrying goods via ship is also more environmentally friendly and safe compared to the other modes of shipments.
But still, you find that most people know very little when it comes to this very old industry. This article has compiled a list of some interesting facts about the shipping industry that you might want to know.
1. There are six types of merchant ships
Currently, the global shipping fleet has six different types of ships for ferrying products. They include the passenger ships, tankers, bulk carriers, general cargo ships, container ships, and fishing vessels. As of now, there are about 55,000 merchant ships that carry cargo around the world. And the number keeps growing.
2. Tons of bananas
So far, the largest ship can carry and store up to 18,000 containers. This means that it can ferry more than 745 million bananas at a time. When you crunch the number, you find that just one trip of this ship can feed each European with a banana.
3. Powerful
These ships are massive. Plus, they carry tons upon tons of cargo across continents. For a ship that carries hundreds of metric tons of cargo, you should expect it to come packed with extremely powerful engines. A containership’s engine is about 1,000 times more powerful than the engine of an average family vehicle. Nevertheless, you will still realize that most of these ships with powerful engines go an average of 23 knots at peak. That translates to about 26.5 miles per hour.
4. Biggest fleets
Based on the total deadweight tonnage that’s controlled by the parent companies of these ships. Germany, Greece, and Japan are the leading countries when you consider their ship fleets.
5. A long journey
With an average speed of 26.5 miles and destinations that can go up to across continents and large masses of water bodies, you wouldn’t be surprised that most of these ships take months, even years, while out in the seas and oceans. On average, a container ship can travel about 75% of the distance to the moon and back in a year. And that’s just on a regular travel.
6. Great employer
You also find that about 1.5 million seafarers have employment in the global shipping industry. It creates good employment opportunities.
7. Male dominated industry
The business shipping industry is also pretty much male-dominated. With only about 2% of all employees being females.
8. Communication challenges
About 33% of all ship crews throughout the world usually have no means of communication with the outside world while they’re in the open sea. And only about 10% can say that they have some kind of internet access.
