7.4   Trends in the size of integral containers
	Table 5 shows the relative quantities of all containers with regard to their various dimensions. The largest growth today can be observed in the 40' high cube containers (9' 6" high). In future, they will replace the normal 8' 6" high 40' containers. 20' containers, however, are still needed to transport heavy cargo such as meat and fish, since a 40' container fully loaded with these goods would exceed the 30t weight limit.     TEU   1992 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 Integral 20' (8') 997 1,183 1,182 822 661 656 Integral 20' (8' 6") 79,508 100,775 115,106 119,368 118,246 119,811 Integral 20' (9' 6")         370 665 Integral 40' (8') 40 1,356 1,376 40     Integral 40' (8' 6") 167,680 203,860 205,482 189,846 179,004 176,836 Integral 40' (9' 6") 70,648 131,076 179,570 241,440 314,382 387,464 Integral other 14,588 16,587 16,968 18,636 11,159 10,987   Total integral TEU 333,461 454,837 519,684 570,152 623,822 696,419 Total integral containers 206,983 278,398 317,986 345,171 371,180 408,111   Insulated 20' (8') 46,260 42,600 36,666 38,308 32,021 30,565 Insulated 20' (8' 6") 15,771 17,500 16,167 15,268 19,705 17,524 Insulated 40' (8') 18 18 18 18     Insulated 40' (8' 6") 8,636 7,502 7,712 7,728 6,886 6,930 Insulated 40' (9' 6") 608 800 1,072 1,290 1,000 1,018 Insulated other 2,198 11,700 10,253 11,024 1,350 1,440   Total insulated TEU 73,491 80,120 71,888 73,636 60,962 57,477 Total insulated containers 67,761 70,110 62,361 63,606 56,344 52,783   Total TEU 406,952 534,957 591,572 643,788 684,784 753,896 Total Containers 274,744 348,508 380,347 408,777 427,524 460,894 Converting TEU to a number of containers where 40' container = 2 TEU Integral other includes 43' containers from Chiquita, for instance Source: World Container Censuses   Table 5: Trends in the proportion of different refrigerated container sizes from 1992 to 1998   It is also interesting to look at the actual number of containers, which amounted to 408,777 in 1996. According to table 2, 47.41 million tons of refrigerated cargo were transported by sea in the same year. If it is assumed that approximately 50% of these goods were transported in containers, and that the average weight of a container cargo is 20 t, this means there are a total of 1.185 million transport operations per year. This means an average of 2.9 transport operations per year per container. There are of course large variations depending on the owner and the trade route. Banana companies, who mainly transport their bananas to North America in refrigerated containers, make approximately twelve to fifteen trips per year. The annual frequency with which the major container shipping companies use "normal" refrigerated containers must be reduced accordingly, meaning that an average of around two trips per year can be expected.

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