The US has seen a long and increasing trend towards the offshore manufacturing of goods. Once manufactured, these goods must be imported and one of the most popular methods is transportation in cargo containers. As a result of loss, theft and tampering, the need to secure and protect these cargo containers is at an all time high. The CommerceGuard system from GE aims to provide that protection.
Container Shipments on the Rise
While it should come as no surprise to anyone that shipping containers are a prevalent method of transporting cargo, it may be surprising just how prevalent they are. Between the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York/New Jersey (America’s three largest container processing ports) a combined 20,852,151 TEU’s (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit - a volumetric measurement that standardizes cargo containers) of containers were handled in 2006. Further, this represents almost 10% growth from 2005 when just under 19 million TEU’s of containers were processed.
