The Future of Container Shipping - What Will Shipping Look like in 2050?

Table of Contents

1. The Shipping Container of the Future
2. Ports and Container Terminals in the Future
3. The Future of Vessels and Crew Members
4. Futuristic Fuels
5. Conclusion

The future of the shipping container

According to McKinsey, container volumes will increase by two to five times by 2050. This not only means increased capacities for vessels and harbors but also calls for new ways of handling cargo and infrastructural changes.

Compared to today's boxes, containers of the future are likely to be much more smart, mobile and autonomous and are expected to provide a wealth of data. Not only about its position, the condition of its contents and the respective weight, but also about its immediate surroundings. What is above, below and next to it? That's what it’ll need to know in the future, because McKinsey and other experts, such as Pedro Galveia from Yilport Iberia's Global Logistics Centre, believe that the future generation of boxes will be able to fly short distances - in a similar way to drones - to their position on the quay in the port. This should significantly increase the speed at which vessels can be handled at ports due to shorter loading times. Cranes, which are currently the only possibility to load or unload vessels and can only carry a maximum of 2 20-foot containers at a time, will no longer be needed.

While we might not be in the future yet, we can still take advantage of smart containers with our real-time visibility tool Live Position and the reefer counterpart Hapag-Lloyd LIVE.

Ports and Terminals in the Year 2050

The port as we know it today will also change. McKinsey's experts believe that the number of ports will increase and instead of fewer bigger ports, more, but also smaller ports are likely to emerge in the coming decades. This is necessary to cope with the increasing number of containers and to get closer to the last mile of logistics. These changes will also reduce the distance goods have to travel by rail and road as ports of destination will be closer to the actual final destinations anyway. 

At the same time, the ports of the future are likely to become smarter and more autonomous. The use of virtual reality solutions, AI and the aforementioned self-steering containers will increase the speed at which ships can be unloaded and reduce the time that goods are stored in ports. At least that's what the analysts at DP Word believe. Humans will only intervene to control the process but will no longer be directly involved. A pleasant side effect: workplace safety is increasing rapidly.

According to DP Word, the digital and autonomous harbor of the future will also play an important role as an energy hub. It will supply ships with the fuels of the future, in which electricity will play an important role. It is therefore quite conceivable that the harbor of the future will have its own small power plants that produce the energy that the vessels need directly on the quay wall.  

Vessels (and crew?) of the future

Of course, digitalization will also increasingly affect the vessels themselves. They will be intelligent and networked, thanks to a multitude of sensors. However, the difference to today's vessels will not be that great in this respect. Modern vessels are already able to see and understand their surroundings quite well thanks to sensors and AI-supported systems aboard. What will change is the speed at which the information is processed and the ability to make predictions. With the increase in computing power, routes and external influences such as weather and currents will simply be better estimated leading to faster and safer routes.

A real revolution will take place below deck, in the engine room. DNV suggests that by 2050, hardly any container ship will be powered by fossil-fueled combustion engines as we know them today. Humanoid robots will also be part of this revolution. In Silicon Valley, Apple, Elon Musk and Meta are currently working flat out on the development of this new generation of robots. We have to assume that they will be used everywhere in 2050 to do difficult jobs for people. And they might even be found in the engine rooms of large vessels.

Future fuels - electric all the way?

However, a distinction must be made between transport on the high seas and coastal transport. Unlike the automotive industry, maritime transport will not be fully electrified. The McKinsey study currently assumes that synthetic methanol and ammonia are the most likely fuel options. Synthetic LNG, on the other hand, is seen as an important transition fuel until methanol and ammonia are fully fledged bunkering options.     

For smaller vessels, which tend to operate close to shore, fuel cell or battery electric propulsion is the most likely option.     

In contrast to today, it is therefore likely that large vessels transporting containers close to the coast will then be transferred at sea to smaller ships, which in turn will call at the many new smaller harbors. This will also result in more need for accurate route planning and efficient optimization. Both can be enhanced by using the hub and spoke model. 

Container shipping in 2050 

The above examples and scenarios show that everything is becoming smarter, more independent, more digital, more connected, more sustainable and more autonomous. Artificial intelligence no longer needs to be mentioned in this process because it is already part of all applications and solutions. People control and monitor. But they no longer intervene with their own hands. This will be done by humanoid robots – and of course the containers will also be able to fly. They will become intelligent, box-shaped drones.