Container standards are divided into four standards based on the scope of use
international standard
Container standardization has gone through a development process. Since its establishment in 1961, the Technical Committee ISO/TC104 of the International Organization for Standardization has made many additions, additions, deletions and modifications to the international standards for containers. The current international standards are the first series of 13, with the same width (2438mm), four lengths (12192mm, 9125mm, 6058mm, 2991mm) and three heights (2896mm, 2591mm, 2438mm).
National standards
Governments of various countries refer to international standards and consider their specific situations to formulate their own container standards.
In the current standards of our country, the (centralized) management agencies related to freight container standards include five standardization technical committees: National Container Standardization Technical Committee, National Port Standardization Technical Committee, National Road Transport Standardization Technical Committee, National Integrated Transportation Standardization Technical Committee, and Transportation and Navigation Safety Standardization Technical Committee. In addition to the technical committees that issue national and industry standards mentioned above, the Maritime Safety Administration is responsible for issuing normative documents for the operation of shipborne containers, and the Classification Society is responsible for developing guidelines for shipborne container transportation related to ship inspection and certification. [5]
The external dimensions, limit deviations, and rated weight of various types of containers in the current national standard "Container External Dimensions and Rated Weight" (GB1413-2008) in China.
Regional standards
The standards for such containers are formulated by regional organizations based on the special circumstances of the region, and such containers are only applicable to that region. Such as containers built according to the container standards formulated by the European International Union of Railways (VIC).
Company Standards
Some large container shipping companies develop container shipping company standards based on their specific circumstances and conditions, and these types of containers are mainly used within their transportation scope. For example, the 35ft container of the US Land and Sea Company.
In addition, there are many non-standard containers in the world. For example, non-standard length containers include 35ft containers from the US Navy and Land Company, 45ft and 48ft containers from the President's Shipping Company; There are mainly two types of non-standard height containers: 9ft and 9.5ft; Non standard width containers such as 8.2ft wide containers. Driven by economic benefits, there is an increasing number of 20ft containers with a total weight of 24ft in the world, and they are generally popular. With the continuous takeoff of China's economy, China's import and export trade has become increasingly frequent, making the use of containers more widely used in the market. (Extract from Baidu Baike)