Editing Containerization (section)

=== Effects ===
[[File:Shanghai Express Port of Rotterdam 17-Apr-2006.jpg|thumb|''Shanghai Express'', [[Port of Rotterdam]]]]

Containerization greatly reduced the expense of [[international trade]] and increased its speed, especially of consumer goods and commodities. It also dramatically changed the character of port cities worldwide. Prior to highly mechanized container transfers, crews of 20 to 22 [[longshoremen]] would pack individual cargoes into the hold of a ship. After containerization, large crews of longshoremen were not necessary at port facilities, and the profession changed drastically.

Meanwhile, the port facilities needed to support containerization changed. One effect was the decline of some ports and the rise of others. At the [[Port of San Francisco]], the former piers used for loading and unloading were no longer required, but there was little room to build the vast holding lots needed for storing and sorting containers in transit between different transport modes. As a result, the Port of San Francisco essentially ceased to function as a major commercial port, but the neighboring [[Port of Oakland]] emerged as the second largest on the US West Coast. A similar fate occurred with the relationship between the [[Port of New York and New Jersey|ports of Manhattan and New Jersey]]. In the UK, the [[Port of London]] and [[Port of Liverpool]] declined in importance. Meanwhile, Britain's [[Port of Felixstowe]] and [[Port of Rotterdam]] in the Netherlands emerged as major ports.

In general, containerization caused [[inland port]]s on waterways incapable of receiving deep-[[Draft (hull)|draft]] ship traffic to decline in favor of [[seaport]]s, which then built vast container terminals next to deep oceanfront harbors in lieu of the dockfront warehouses and finger piers that had formerly handled break bulk cargo. With intermodal containers, the jobs of packing, unpacking, and sorting cargoes could be performed far from the point of embarkation. Such work shifted to so-called "[[dry port]]s" and gigantic warehouses in rural inland towns, where land and labor were much cheaper than in oceanfront cities. This fundamental transformation of where warehouse work was performed freed up valuable waterfront real estate near the [[central business district]]s of port cities around the world for [[redevelopment]] and led to a plethora of waterfront revitalization projects (such as [[List of warehouse districts|warehouse districts]]).<ref name="Hein_Page_821">{{cite book |last1=Hein |first1=Carola |editor1-last=Clark |editor1-first=Peter |title=The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0191637698 |pages=809–827 [821]|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z09oAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA821 |chapter=Port Cities}}</ref>

The effects of containerization rapidly spread beyond the shipping industry. Containers were quickly adopted by trucking and rail transport industries for cargo transport not involving sea transport. Manufacturing also evolved to adapt to take advantage of containers. Companies that once sent small consignments began grouping them into containers. Many cargoes are now designed to precisely fit containers. The reliability of containers made [[Just-in-time manufacturing|just in time manufacturing]] possible as component suppliers could deliver specific components on regular fixed schedules.

In 2004, global container traffic was 354 million [[Twenty-foot equivalent unit|TEU]]s, of which 82 percent were handled by the world's top 100 container ports.<ref>{{cite book | author = James Jixian Wang | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PfOcUn9GCc4C&pg=PA71 | title = Ports, Cities, and Global Supply Chains | language = en | publisher = Ashgate Publishing |year=2007| oclc = 1074025516 |pages =61–72|isbn = 978-0754670544}}</ref>