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OT shipping container price

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Mebfab

Diamond
Joined
Jun 7, 2003
Location
Mebane North Carolina USA
Anyone know the story on shipping containers. Need to buy a couple. But..... Price is absurd. 2X or more since start of covid. I understand there was a shortage and supply chain issues (excuses to raise price) but my understanding is the ports, railyards. etc are absolutely up to the eyeballs with emptys. To the point they have jacked up rent on the parking spots. So what with the price?

Also, whats with the ton of people on facebook selling them? Is it some sprt of multilevel marketing scheme?
 
I looked into getting one a few months ago but they were too expensive for the space. A buddy bought one a couple years ago and paid about half what they are apparently going for now. Not worth it to me at that price. Rather frame out a shed myself and get more space for the same money.
 
On a good note, the sky-high conex prices have driven up the price of shitty old box trucks and semi trailers. So if you have any of those you want to get rid of you can make some money.

I do not understand why the prices are high on containers either. I'd expect lower prices right now.
 
Around here you can get a mostly dry one for 1500 and a good one trip is closer to 5K 20' or 40' but 40's are more plentiful

There are not very many places they can be got and just everyone can't go there and get one so it is kind of a pyramid sales thing
 
We have a few container projects going on and they are very expensive as noted.

The hope is we'll have a glut of them soon and the prices will come down a bit.

Ancedotally, the local yard where the used ones can be had is about 1/2 full from what I remember seeing. (Louisville, KY).

The resellers are just that...sort of like the nationwide phone numbers for dumpster rentals...find the local supplier and put eyes on the one you want.
 
dalmatiangirl61 said:
Price on 20 footers is high because anyone with a 20ft trailer can move one, the 40's take specialized haulers.
Click to expand...

The way it was explained to me was a bit different.

Anyone with a rollback wrecker can move an empty 20' one.

Some around here are making them into jobsite trailers (to get rid of license problems with trailers) and install a hook & pallet set-up to move them faster, with that style of rollback truck, instead of playing with tie downs & chains.
 
I think containers were cheap because we don't ship as much to China as China ships here. So we end up with empty containers. No on is shipping empty containers back

Well, logistics issues/Covid, not as many spare containers.
 
Shipping container houses (and small malls) are a real thing, but the numbers are so tiny it won't make a dent in the overflowing yards at the ports. There's got to be some other explanation. Frankly, I would expect people to be begging buyers to take containers away at this point, with prices near an all-time low. Clearly that's not what's happening, but I don't understand what's driving the price up.
 
Has anyone figured out how to cut out the middleman and buy containers direct from the ports? Secret auction format, Guido's brother??? I've looked but have never found it, called ports in Houston direct and got nowhere. At the right price I'd buy a bunch and build a warehouse out of them.
 
Just last month I thought I was reading stories of them getting abandoned on the sides of the roads thru out California as the ports were too congested to load and ship back to China. One would think they'd be one of the few things that fell in price with our supply chain issues.

Who actually owns them and decides to sell them? I would think the shipping lines? I wonder what the things cost new in China vs what do they cost to send back empty?

Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk
 
Local Craigslist pricing is $1800 for a "dry" 20-footer. No price given for one-trippers. Bought a 20-footer 18 months ago for about $3K delivered. Quick move, so not much time to shop around.
 
I have several longshoreman friends. They explained to me that any containers stacked on the deck of a ship are empty. All the full ones are below. If you've spent any time in a port city you know that all container ships are piled high with empty containers-the ones you can see above deck - being shipped back to their owners.

metalmagpie
 
Just found out today we're getting a few 40' one trip hi cubes delivered for $7k each... high cube was only $200 more each so that was a no brainer.

A semi will bring most of ours in general, but a Dually with a 40' tilt trailer will handle them too (empty of course).
 
I assume the longshoreman meant that any empty containers go on the top of the load, not that all containers at the top are empty. Which would make sense to put the empties on top. If the heavy stuff is at the top, and empties on the bottom, the ship would be prone to turning over and sinking.
 
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