News / Could this five-in-one collapsible container finally be the game-changer?

SeaFold

Compact Container Systems (CCS) has released its SeaFold HC 40ft, a folding container that can collapse to make a stack of five the same size as a single feu, and allow easy repositioning of empties.

“The opportunity to place five of our folded containers in the same slot as one 40ft HC standard container is a game-changer in managing box movements, maximising storage capacity and greatly reducing carbon emissions,” claimed CCS CEO Charlie Santos-Buch.

Shipping has long been enamoured with the promise of a container that can fold down and stack, ensuring that return voyages could reposition hundreds of thousands of teu in empties with a single trip.

During the Covid pandemic, repositioning of empties was a major source of disruption, leading to huge numbers of empty containers sitting on quaysides, overflow from handling facilities, hampering intermodal operations.

There has also been evidence of a lack of a container availability beginning to affect forwarder operations this year, as well, owing to the crisis in the Red Sea.

But despite decades of attempts at creating foldable boxes, none has yet reached the threshold of wide-scale adoption. The most immediately obvious concern is their strength and worries about stack collapse – in most cases this is the first thing to be addressed in new designs.

CCS says the container can be collapsed in seven minutes, using conventional port equipment, and achieved a 69% reduction in tonnes of CO2e emissions on a shipping route from Los Angeles to Shanghai.

“Whether it is saving cost or space, our containers create a safe and more efficient operating and storage system at a port, terminal or depot,” claimed Mr Santos-Buch. “This is especially important during the high-volume peak season when congestion is a big issue and moving out empty containers becomes a priority.”

It remains to be seen if this new iteration of the folded container is the one that will, finally, take off.