Maersk Line, the world’s largest container shipping company that has integrated these containers to its fleet, stated in its official website, the StarCare offers shippers and consignees the efficiencies and flexibility of containerised transport – even enabling one to ship small quantities of bananas to remote markets. The shipping firm claims the special design and advanced membrane technology of the CA containers allow the fruits to stay fresh for up to 45 days maintaining outstanding product quality.

The new containers regulate temperature, humidity levels and the mixture of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen to keep the products fresh all the way to the consumers of any distant market. This transportation medium is even claimed to do away with the expensive Banavac packaging process thus saving time and money to the exporters.

Through the StarCare shipping process which allows small volumes to be freighted, even Ecuador is in a position to explore the distant markets of the Middle East, Japan, China, Russia and New Zealand. The Costa Rican exporters now have access to the valuable markets in Russia and the East Coast of South America. Similarly, the banana producers in the Philippines are now able to export their produce to the Middle East, while the African exporters can now ship to the Mediterranean Sea and to the Northern Europe.

The level playing field created by this new freighting system is expected to help banana exporters across the world to increase profitability and cut transit losses. The breaking down of barriers through extended market reach is likely to usher in a new wave of competition in the international food market, perhaps, even tinker with the consumers’ dietary habits.

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On the contrary, the Maersk chairman John Clancey had told the subcommittee last week that arms on ships could make the seas even more dangerous. He had added arming merchant sailors might result in the acquisition of ever more lethal weapons and tactics by the pirates making them furthermore defenceless.

Though heads of both leading shipping companies have contrasting views about arming their ships against sea piracy, according to sources, the military has admitted that guarding the Gulf of Aden about four times the size of Texas would be a gargantuan task. Navy Vice Adm. James A. Winnefeld said it would put a “large dent” in the Navy’s capacity and funding if it had to assign a military security force to each ship in the region.

Shapiro’s call comes in the wake of an aborted attempt on his ship which was on a humanitarian ‘food for Africa’ relief mission and a series of piracy at the Somali waters including the failed attack on the cargo ship Maersk Alabama. It should be recalled while rescuing the mariners of Alabama three pirates were killed. He said the Maersk Alabama incident had become a game-changer as the pirates wanted to avenge the killings of their accomplices, and had now issued direct threats against the US merchant sailors.

At the hearing, Shapiro also opposed the government’s official advice in discouraging ransom as it would only jeopardize the lives of the US mariners. Since the law would take its own time for implementation, until then, the president and CEO of Liberty Maritime wanted the authorities to urgently sanction government security teams or naval escorts for all US-flagged vessels on high-risk transits.

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Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) is the standard size of a container in the logistic business. The team was able to invent a collapsible container that is one-fourth of the standard-sized container when folded. The shipping industry spent a lot of time and money in transporting empty containers after unloading, especially from ports where equivalent amount of goods were not available to be shifted. It is estimated, more than 30-40 percent of shipping is done for the movement of the empties. In 2003 alone, $11 billion has been spent just for repositioning the empties and these figures are excluding the storage costs. It is quite common to hire an entire ship for repositioning and Ocean Carriers, one of the majors of the industry stated, they have spent $16 billion last year on the same.

The IIT duo’s amazing new design can carry four containers in the space occupied by one of the present containers. It opens upward to allow top loading of both soft and hard commodities. The expansion and folding could be done in less than 5 minutes and is not complicated either. However, the initial cost of the new container will be 10-15 percent more than the current one, which costs about $2000. The container has already received positive feedback from leading shipping companies such as Maersk Line, logistic firms and port operators.

Once the certifications from global agencies, Lloyds Register and Bureau Veritas are completed, a requirement for any marine equipment; the invention will soon streamline the shipping industry in the coming years. As Chawla puts it, it would also bring down traffic, reduce pollution and not to mention, a drastic cut in oil usage. The surcharges levied from the exim firms on the empties could also be reduced, which would ultimately bring down the prices of the commodities shipped. According to Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd., the global container traffic is estimated to reach 350 million TEUs by 2024. Therefore, such a simple, awesome invention by two Indian professors will give much needed fillip to the global logistic industry that has already run aground by ever-rising crude prices.

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