subject: Offshore Containers-a Cost Effective Transporting Source [print this page] Offshore containers are a kind of shipping boxes that are built to transport a range of products including office materials, chemicals, paper work, medical supplies etc. These boxes are primarily used in transportation on massive ships from one port to another. They are widely used in the international trade around the world. There are international and national regulations that shipping boxes need to comply with in order to be used. Different countries and ports around the world may have different specification and an ideal offshore container complies with all of them.
All offshore containers are reusable moving goods or storage capacities. Many of them are temperature maintained in order to carry food and medicines. The average temperature inside these moving goods is minus twenty three degrees approximately. For your concern, conventional ISO containers cannot be considered or used as offshore containers. Some of the major reasons why these products cannot be used are because at offshore, the load is extremely high and ISO containers are not really built for this. ISO containers often have ISO corners and not padeyes as in offshore containers. One of the most important reasons is that ISO containers are not certified by local and global regulations for offshore purpose.
Offshore containers are generally leased or rented by many firms in order to reduce costs. Apart from this, these products are manufactured in the same country they are required in or at the closest major port. Remember, if a shipping container is required in India then it is not rented or bought from a US firm. This actually increases the travel cost of an empty offshore container. These moving goods can be rented too depending on the items it is carrying and the distance it will travel to. As a rough estimate, it generally costs anywhere between $85 per ton and $500 per ton for distance between Middle East and India.
Offshore containers are the storage capacities that are always measured in cargo capacity of twenty foot equivalent units which is also known as TEU. Well, there are air freight boxes too but these are much smaller in size. In actual, the air freight boxes are custom built to suit an aircraft's specification as well as ground handling. For your concern, the air freight regulation for these boxes is governed by International Air Transport Association who has laid a protocol that these items must be made in aluminum with a capacity of 407 cubic feet.
