Middle East Refinery Use of Foldable Container Hybrid Type

Are foldable containers effective in repositioning empty containers?

Foldable containers are considered an effective solution to deal with the endemic imbalance in the repositioning of empty containers. Several foldable containers were commercialized without clear breakthrough in the market and most current researches are still limited to small pilot projects.

What are the conditions for the success of foldable containers?

Konings and Thijs summarized clearly the conditions for the success of foldable containers in the market: (1) low costs for folding and unfolding the containers; (2) low manufacturing costs; (3) compatibility with existing equipment for intermodal transport; and (4) structural robustness.

Are foldable containers economically viable?

In order to examine the economic viability of the developed foldable container as compared to a standard 40-ft high-cube container, cost analysis is performed for an example route, i.e., the Busan–Vostochny–Moscow route (Fig. 10), which involves both inland and maritime transportation.

Which containers are foldable or collapsible?

As mentioned above, the foldable or collapsible containers that have been actually commercialized to date are SIO, Fallpac and HCI. Among them, only HCI is fully foldable whereas SIO is collapsible and Fallpac combines collapsible and foldable features.