The transportation of goods in containers and the container shipping industry have rather recent histories. Some authors argue that the idea of shipping goods in intermodal containers was first developed in 1956 by Sea-Land Services, Inc. of New Jersey, at that time known as Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company (ASME, 1983). Pan-Atlantic Steamship built the first containers based on their current shipping needs.

The first container ships were old tanker ships whose decks were converted into trailer platforms to host the just-built containers. In a matter of months, a container ship departed from New Jersey to Houston with 58 containers on deck.

This event marked the beginning of the containerization era and the future of general cargo transportation. Containerization as a cargo handling concept was soon born, proving efficient in reducing labor costs, handling time, and damage during loading from trucks to container ships and vice versa.

Soon after, Sea-Land developed the fully cellular container ship designed to maximize load capacity and ensure safety.