Shipping Containers for Sale UK

The shipping container itself has an interesting history, invented by Malcom McClean in 1956 It was an idea that massively reduced the costs of both shipping and transport, allowing Asia to become the new workshop of the world. A key feature of the shipping container is that it is intermodal, i.e., suitable for safe transportation on a wide variety of modes of transport. A container can be loaded on the back of a lorry in the Far East with goods, lifted onto a train, moved onto a container ship, arrive in a port in the UK and trucked to a factory all with the doors being open just twice, once when it's loaded and once when it's emptied. To withstand shipment in harsh marine environments, heavy handling in ports, depots and factories, shipping containers must be incredibly strong. They are also reusable so must be durable enough to withstand this sort of rough handling over a decade or so, as they travel around the world, strong enough to be loaded with up to 27 tons of cargo and able to be stacked on top of each other up to 9 containers high.

It's this enormous strength and durability that makes them ideal for use as storage containers as well as perfect structures for converting to suit a wide range of uses. The production of a shipping container is carbon intensive. At Containers Direct we specialise in working with second-hand shipping containers that have finished their working life within shipping fleets, and giving them a new lease of life.

In our in-house depot, we make container offices, and pop up shops for a variety of retail applications including burger and coffee bars and retail outlets. We create joined-up containers to make larger spaces for use as classrooms, festival exhibition stands and garage containers. We pioneered the shipping container living roof which is now available as a stand-alone product as well being a valuable part of a conversion project, capturing carbon and increasing bio-diversity.