Containerisation begins: SS Ideal X first container voyage
- Date
- 26 April 1956
- Category
- Economy & trade
- Region
- United States (Newark to Houston)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 26 April 1956, the SS Ideal X, a converted World War II T-2 oil tanker owned by Malcom McLean's Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, departed Port Newark, New Jersey, carrying 58 standardised 35-foot truck-trailer containers alongside a load of bulk petroleum, and arrived at the Port of Houston, Texas, five days later.
Though not the first purpose-built container vessel, the Ideal X was the first commercially successful one, demonstrating that loading cargo in uniform metal boxes could cut handling costs from roughly $5.83 per ton by conventional break-bulk methods to less than $0.16 per ton, with the containers loaded in under eight hours. This proof of concept validated the intermodal shipping container, a simple steel box that could move seamlessly between ships, trucks, and trains without repacking. McLean went on to found Sea-Land Service in 1960, and the model he pioneered was progressively standardised and adopted worldwide. Containerisation slashed shipping costs and transit times, mechanised ports, and became a foundational enabler of late twentieth-century global trade and the modern globalised economy.
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Empires active in 26 April 1956
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
Related economy & trade events
- China's Reform and Opening-Up Begins Under Deng XiaopingDecember 18, 1978
- The global financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers15 September 2008
- Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community25 March 1957 (in force 1 January 1958)
- The Founding Of OPEC1960
- Aramco's 50-50 Oil Agreement Transforms the Gulf1950
- Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program)3 April 1948 (program 1948–1952)
Further reading
The wider story
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Best-selling world history told through the trade routes that moved goods, faiths and ideas.
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