The first container ship used for transportation was Continental Container Service Company. 1940, the company transported containers from land to sea, crossing the blue sea, and completed the first land and water transportation that attracted worldwide attention. 1956, American transatlantic shipping company converted the "Gateway" into a container ship and tried to load 16 large container between new york and Houston. After three months of operation, great economic benefits have been achieved. Later, it was further transformed, and the tanker "Gateway" was completely transformed into a container ship, which can carry 266 containers. After the transformation, the loading and unloading time of the ship docked at the dock was shortened from 7 days to 15 hours compared with the cargo ship of the same tonnage, which greatly improved the economic benefits and attracted great attention from the shipping industry. During the period from1957 to1958, the company converted six general cargo ships into container ships and built container ships at the same time.

1962, the first container ship "port elizabeth" was put into operation, with a capacity of 475 containers and a length of 10 meter. Sailing on the east and west banks of Panama, the operation time of each voyage is 18 days. It took only 24 hours to complete the task of loading and unloading the whole ship at the port.

Because container ships have made excellent achievements in operation, shipping companies in many countries compete to carry out container transportation at sea and build container ships one after another, which makes the container transportation industry develop rapidly in a short time.

Although the history of container transportation by sea is not long, so far, dozens of countries have carried out container transportation on more than 500 routes. In many countries with relatively developed industries, most of them have formed a complete container transportation system. Practical experience has proved that changing the transportation of groceries from single and small pieces to large container transportation can not only reduce a lot of repetitive work in loading and unloading operations and greatly improve the efficiency of loading and unloading, but also simplify the packaging of goods and reduce the damage after loading them into containers.

There are many kinds of containers used by container freighters, all of which carry different goods in different categories. For example, sealed containers (that is, dry containers) are waterproof and suitable for loading general groceries; Ventilation container, suitable for loading fresh vegetables, fruits and other goods; Heat preservation container, suitable for loading refrigerated goods or goods that need to be kept at a certain temperature; Refrigerated containers, suitable for loading refrigerated goods, fresh fruits or special chemical products; Open-top containers are suitable for loading machinery and electrical equipment. Plate-and-frame containers, in addition to open-top containers, can transport live animals if fences or net walls are used instead of side walls. Liquid cargo containers (also known as oil tank containers) generally have a volume of 18.3 cubic meters and are suitable for loading oil, alcohol and liquid chemical products. Bulk containers are mainly suitable for loading bulk agricultural products or powdered mineral products.

Of course, shipping containers are not perfect. Because of the high cost of container ships, there are special docks and equipment to support them, so the investment is relatively large. In addition, the reconstruction of land transportation equipment, roads and bridges also requires a lot of investment. As far as the ship itself is concerned, the utilization rate of container space is low, generally only 60% ~ 80%, and empty containers also occupy a considerable space; And some goods can't be packed yet. For example, containers such as large machinery and equipment that exceed the specifications, as well as goods with large supply such as crude oil, ore and coal. They are all transported by special vessels, far superior to container ships. Therefore, although container ships have many advantages, they cannot completely replace other ships.