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Shipping Containers as Building Elements: A Growing Trend
With the increasing reliance on global commerce, the international market for container shipping is expected to surge from almost $7 billion in 2020 to almost $16 billion by 2028, according to Statista, a global data provider. While the numbers vary wildly, it is estimated that the total number of shipping containers in use worldwide is now between 5 million and 170 million.
The lifespan of a shipping container used at sea is approximately ten to twelve years, but if well maintained, one can last over twenty-five years. Repurposing them has emerged as a billion-dollar industry – and multiple uses now take advantage of their strength, resilience, compactness, affordability, stackability and relative portability. Beyond their primarily use for shipping – maritime, rail and trucking – the most obvious alternative use is general storage, both on- and off-site as stand-alone units.
Shipping containers are also growing in popularity as a building element. Developers are increasingly utilizing repurposed shipping containers since they are exceptionally sturdy and also accelerate the construction cycle – allowing buildings to be assembled quickly with smaller crews and fewer logistical delays
Learn more about how the positive attributes of shipping containers are expanding opportunities to use them creatively for a variety of projects and purposes – as well as about the legal implications of building with them in Law360 (subscriber only).