The BBC Container Box

In order to answer the following questions "What does globalisation mean? How does world trade really work? How much difference has the humble shipping container made to the massive growth of the global economy and how does it affect your life?" BBC has been following a container around the world for one year (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/business/2008/the_box/default.stm)

Together with it you can find videos on how the container got painted, what are containers used for after their "life" is over,the arrival of the container in multiple ports Singapore/Santos/Shangai or the passage through the suez canal. The effect of the crisis can be seen throught the videos were they state how much the cost of container transport has droped, sometimes reaching to a 50% decrease, ships not traveilng at their full capacity and some ships being "layed out". The importance of the supply chain gets into the light in these videos. If the goods do not arrive right on time to the port, they are not shipped, so they miss their train in the other side to arrive to the other side of the country and on time to the shop. For seasonal products a miss might be a loss. A delay and you may losse your client... but with so many players in a supply chain, how can one reach full efficiency?

The videos are short and superficial, but if you are intrested dont forget to go into the link!