Container market notes
One substantial note every two weeks: what is moving in routing, repositioning and depot conditions. No prices — live availability stays on the stock page.
Latest notes
Each note takes one axis of container availability — route, geography or timing — and follows it through to what it means when you are sourcing.
One record from release to invoice: how MG-Atlantic runs its operations on Krak Stack
Between leaving the depot and its last invoice, a container passes through many hands: the depot that executes the release, the customer who returns it, the team that calculates per diems, the accounts team that collects payment. At MG-Atlantic, that whole journey sits in one record, on Krak Stack, a platform built for container lessors and traders. This note explains what that changes in our operations, and what an operator should check before choosing a tool.
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20DC · 40HCWhy an international trader is opening a container shop in Switzerland
On 2 October 2026, MG-Atlantic SA put mgcontainer.ch online, a shop for companies, tradespeople and private buyers established in Switzerland. International trading and leasing stay with MG-Atlantic. The new brand answers a demand the maritime market does not serve: a single container, delivered onto a site, without going through a port depot.
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40HC · 20DCSeptember's Import Peak, and What It Leaves Inland
US ports were forecast to handle more imports in September 2026 than in any other month of the year. Every one of those loaded boxes is emptied somewhere, and a large share of them are emptied far from the coast. The peak on the quay is followed, weeks later, by a peak of empty equipment inland.
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20DC · 40HCPanama Rations Transits, and Equipment Follows
A canal that rations capacity does not simply move fewer ships. It moves less weight per ship, on a schedule nobody controls, and the equipment on board is displaced along with the cargo. The Panama Canal Authority has done both this month, and the effect reaches container positioning long before it reaches freight rates.
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20DC · 40HCWhat a Depot Actually Charges For
A depot invoice is rarely one line, and the line people argue about is almost never the one that moved the total. Storage per day is visible and easy to compare; the lifts, the survey and the repair approval sit around it and usually decide what the operation cost. Knowing which line is which is the difference between negotiating a rate and negotiating a bill.
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40HC · 20DCCape Routing and Container Availability
A rerouting is usually discussed as a schedule problem: the voyage takes longer, the arrival moves. For anyone who owns or leases the boxes, the schedule is the smaller half. A longer rotation ties up equipment for longer, and equipment tied up in transit is equipment that is not available anywhere. The effect arrives late, lasts after the routing normalises, and lands hardest on the ports furthest down the string.
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40HC · 20DC · 40DCWhy Container Availability Differs by Port
Container availability is not a global condition, it is a local one, and it is set almost entirely by the direction cargo moves. Ports that import more than they export accumulate boxes; ports that export more than they import run out. Everything else — grade, type, timing — is negotiated on top of that one fact.
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40HC · 20DCThe Container Availability Calendar
Container availability has a season. Export peaks pull equipment out of circulation before they arrive, factory shutdowns freeze it in place, and the weeks that follow are usually the easiest of the year to source in — and the least used, because nobody plans for them. The rhythm is one of the few things in this market that is predictable.
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