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A comment on Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year. Parent comment

Re:Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year by TedDoesntTalk on Wednesday September 07, 2022 @07:04AM (#32749014)
> adds perhaps 20 cents to the cost of a single, 250g package.

Can you share your math?

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Re:Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year by Tade0 on Wednesday September 07, 2022 @07:48AM (#32749372)
I assumed that weight is the limiting factor, considering the content is slightly denser than water, and an ISO40 container holds 26 740 kg:

https://freightfinders.com/container-transport/40-feet-iso-c...

Assuming two trips the lengths of which are in the same order of magnitude as the one mentioned: $10 522 * 2 = $21 044.

That's $0.7869 per kg, so $0.1967 per 250g package. At $2k per container it's $0.0373.

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Re:Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year by CapitalistCartr on Wednesday September 07, 2022 @07:25AM (#32749178)
Not OP, but it's pretty obvious. At $1-$2 (US) per cubic foot, 4-8 packages per cu. ft. is 20¢ apiece. A shipping container is about 2400 cu. ft., more for hi-cubes.
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Re:Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year by thrown_22 on Wednesday September 07, 2022 @07:41AM (#32749301)
You also have hard limits on the total weight of the container, which is why no one transports iron ore in containers.
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Re:Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year by mtillman on Wednesday September 07, 2022 @08:57AM (#32749943)
Pretty common to ship 20mt of metal in containers-we process $8B in raw commodities a year like this. Commodity traders don’t pay these prices to ship though, these are high value manufacturing (cpg, tech) prices. Commodity firms still ship enough volume to pay sub $2k a can.
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Re:Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year by mistrial9 on Wednesday September 07, 2022 @09:15AM (#32750121)
> ship 20mt of metal in containers

containers vary a lot in their construction and materials, right? open-top railway car containers are not the same as common trans-continental containers, and refrigerated units are different again. All of those and more are in daily use in vast numbers, worldwide.

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Re:Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year by thrown_22 on Wednesday September 07, 2022 @09:33AM (#32750357)
20,000 kg of steel is ~3m^3. That leaves rather a lot of the 30m^3 volume of a 20 foot container empty.
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Re:Ocean shipping rates have plunged 60% this year by mistrial9 on Wednesday September 07, 2022 @09:02AM (#32749983)
I believe that the trucking portion of handling the container has weight limits; the machinery that handles the loading and unloading have their weight limits; the ship and the way it is loaded from bow to stern has weight limits, and a container itself has weight limits. Somewhat analogous to freeway overpass heights, the tendency over time is that the various limits harmonize with each other and you get typical shipping practices.

A shipping container full of raw cotton is indeed quite different than one full of "iron ore" but actually, consumer electronics and various car parts, their load limits, are more commonly restricted in the way they are loaded and handled.

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