41% of all container moves on the planet are empty boxes being repositioned, costing the industry $20 billion per year that shippers ultimately pay for

For every 100 containers moved globally, 41 of them are empty — being repositioned from where they were unloaded back to where they are needed for the next export. This is up from 31% in 2019. The root cause is trade imbalance: the US and Europe import far more containerized goods from Asia than they export back, so empty boxes pile up in consuming regions while exporting regions face equipment shortages. The industry spends approximately $20 billion per year just moving empty steel boxes across oceans. This cost does not stay with the carriers. It gets baked into freight rates, meaning every shipper is subsidizing the repositioning of empty containers whether they know it or not. When the imbalance spikes — as it did after the 2025 US tariff escalations on Chinese goods, when import bookings dropped sharply and empties piled up at US ports — carriers run dedicated repositioning voyages to sweep empties back to Asia. These voyages burn fuel, occupy berth space, and consume port labor, all for zero revenue cargo. The cost gets passed through as higher base rates or surcharges on the next round of contract negotiations. Small and mid-size shippers have no leverage to negotiate these costs down. The problem persists because no cross-carrier platform exists for matching empty containers with nearby export loads. Each carrier manages its own equipment pool independently. A Maersk empty sitting at a depot in New Jersey cannot be used by an exporter who has a booking with MSC, even though both containers are identical 40-foot dry boxes. Street turns — reusing an import container directly for an export load — could eliminate up to 50% of empty trips, but they require coordination across carriers, importers, exporters, and drayage providers that does not exist at scale. Carriers have actually started charging fees for street turns, actively discouraging the most efficient solution.