How Smart Shipping Containers Can Help Enhance Global Healthcare Delivery?

As per the USDA, global imports of poultry, live or processed, are expected to reach 17.5 million metric tons in 2031. Further, as per the UNCTAD, the transportation of containerized goods crossed 160 million TEUs in 2021. Moreover, after sliding significantly in 2020 due to the pandemic, overall maritime trade volumes grew by 3.2%, reaching 11.2 billion tons in 2021. All these factors hint at a massive upcoming demand for smart shipping containers, the sale of which could reach USD 15,341.5 million by 2030.

What Are Smart Containers, and How Are They Different from Regular Ones?

Smart containers are regular shipping containers equipped with an array of sensors, to track the temperature, humidity, and other quality parameters of the contents within, connected to a central control room via IoT. Likewise, they can be equipped with GPS sensors to track their movement and position continuously, something that could prove useful in detecting the theft of cargo.

How Do Smart Containers Increase Profitability for Shipping Lines?

The spoilage of perishable items during shipping is one of the leading causes of loss for shippers. A typical 20-foot reefer container can ferry over 27,000 kg of goods, and if anything goes wrong with the refrigeration efficiency or power supply, the entirety of this massive load could perish at once.

Moreover, compared to air transport, marine transport costs up to 12 times less, which means that shippers have a clear advantage over cargo airlines, provided the former can transport the goods within the stipulated time and in the desired quality. However, there is typically no way to ascertain the condition of the goods inside a normal container.

This is where smart containers prove useful, as they continuously feed data on the conditions inside to a central control room, which could be at the shipper or logistics company’s office or on the merchant vessel itself. This way, just as an alert is received from a sensor integrated into a smart container, engineers onboard the ship can scurry to the container, inspect it, and take the appropriate action.

Key Opportunity for Shippers of Pharmaceutical Products

As per the NIH, almost a third of the global population lacks access to essential medication. This presents a lucrative opportunity for shipping lines specializing in the transportation of pharmaceutical items, including drugs, tissue, cell and blood products, and test kits.

The lack of access to preventive care was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when countries closed all major industries, but upped the import of medical products. For instance, India has supplied 235 million vaccine doses to 98 countries since the pandemic began.

Since pharmaceutical products are among the most-temperature-sensitive items and highly susceptible to spoilage, smart containers are needed to ferry such items to the far-away regions of the world in perfect condition. This is despite the fact that air is the fastest mode of transport for long distances, but also the costliest.

The research offers the size of the smart shipping container market for the period 2017–2030.

Market Segmentation by Offering

Hardware

Sensors

Temperature

Pressure

Humidity

Gas

Others

Connectivity devices

Telematics & telemetry devices

Software

Services

Market Segmentation by Technology

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Cellular

Long-Range Wide- Area Network (LoRa WAN)

Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE)

Others

Market Segmentation by Vertical

Food & Beverage

Pharmaceutical

Oil & Gas

Chemical

Others

Market Segmentation by Region

North America Smart Shipping Container Market

By offering

By technology

By vertical

By country – U.S. and Canada

Europe Smart Shipping Container Market

By offering

By technology

By vertical

By country – Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, and Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific (APAC) Smart Shipping Container Market

By offering

By technology

By vertical

By country – Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, and Rest of APAC

Latin America (LATAM) Smart Shipping Container Market

By offering

By technology

By vertical

By country – Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of LATAM

Middle East and Africa (MEA) Smart Shipping Container Market

By offering

By technology

By vertical

By country – Saudi Arabia, South Africa, U.A.E., and Rest of MEA

Therefore, as the trade of perishable cargo by ships picks up, smart containers will play a vital role in ensuring a smooth supply chain and desired product quality on receipt.