Transport & space · 2006

Ultra-large container ship

Emma Maersk carries over 11,000 containers, pushing ocean freight costs to pennies per item.

Launched in 2006, Emma Maersk was 397 m long, the largest container ship of her time. Economies of scale cut per-box shipping costs; ships today exceed 24,000 TEU. Moving a T-shirt from Asia to Europe by sea costs a few cents.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

ISO standard container 1968

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World trade as a share of GDP since 1500 Latest: 1950-now (PWT): 57.8 % of GDP (2023) Source: Our World in Data

Merchandise exports as a share of world GDP Latest: 24.2 % of GDP (2014) Source: Our World in Data

World GDP Latest: 180T int.-$ (2021) (2025) Source: Our World in Data