Practical guides and resources for container leasing, trading and logistics. Learn about container grades, sizes, CSC plates, SOC leasing and more from MG-Atlantic.
Container Technical Resources
Reference content covering container dimensions, grades, standards, inspection points, and operational terminology for buyers, traders, and logistics teams.
- Worldwide standards
- ISO & CSC compliance
- Practical guidance
- Swiss-based expertise
- Container Grades Explained, Understand the difference between New, IICL, CW, WWT and As-Is grades.
- Container Size Guide, Compare 20ft, 40ft and 40HC dimensions and capacities.
- CSC Plate Explained, What is a CSC plate and why it matters.
- One-Way Leasing Explained, How SOC one-way leasing works.
- Container Buying Guide, Step-by-step guide to buying a shipping container.
- Container Types Explained, Overview of dry, high cube, reefer, flat rack and open top formats.
- What a Container's Colour Tells You, Colour records provenance, not condition, and what you must not paint over.
- Shipping Container Delivery Guide, Truck access, offload methods and the US pre-delivery site checklist.
- Container Scams: How to Verify a Seller Before You Pay, The fraud patterns in container trading and a twenty-minute supplier verification procedure.
- Site Preparation for Shipping Containers, Ground prep, gravel pads, concrete foundations and drainage.
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- What reference resources are available?
- Eight reference guides cover the standards, taxonomy and logistics of the shipping-container industry: container-buying-guide (end-to-end purchase decision framework), container-grades-explained (the five canonical grades: Brand New / One-Trip, IICL, Cargo Worthy, WWT, As-Is), container-size-guide (10DC, 20DC, 40DC, 40HC, 45HC dimensions and payloads), container-types-explained (dry, high-cube, reefer, open-top, flat-rack, tank, side-door), csc-plate-explained (the mandatory maritime certification and its validity rules), one-way-leasing-explained (SOC-based one-way (one-way) structural model), shipping-container-delivery-guide (chassis, tilt-bed, crane, port-release modes), and site-preparation-shipping-containers (ground bearing, access, drainage). Each resource is a technical reference, not a comparison.
- How are resources different from guides?
- Resources are REFERENCE material, they define terms, standards and processes without arguing for one option (e.g. what the five container grades are, what a CSC plate certifies, what delivery modes exist). Guides are COMPARISONS, they answer decision questions between two or more options (20DC vs 40HC, buy vs lease, CW vs WWT). Use a resource when you need to know what something is or how it works; use a guide when you need to pick between options. See the /guides hub for the comparison catalog.
- In what order should I read the resources?
- Read by dependency, not by title. Foundations first, container-grades-explained and container-size-guide define the vocabulary used everywhere else. Then read csc-plate-explained if you plan international shipping (the CSC plate governs whether a container can legally cross an ocean). Then read container-types-explained if you need something beyond standard dry (reefer, tank, flat-rack). For a specific project, layer in one-way-leasing-explained (if SOC), shipping-container-delivery-guide (logistics chain), and site-preparation-shipping-containers (ground and access). Finally, container-buying-guide ties everything together as an end-to-end decision framework.
- Do resources give me actionable numbers, or just definitions?
- Both. Definitions are precise (BIC codes, ISO 668 tolerances, CSC certification cycles) so you can verify a container's paperwork. Actionable numbers are embedded where the decision requires them, MGW per size, road-legal payload per chassis type, USD ranges per grade × port supply, transport cost per 100-300 km, CSC re-inspection cost, As-Is repair budget. The philosophy: a resource must let you challenge a supplier's quote or specification with real market data.
- What if the resource I need doesn't exist yet?
- The eight resources cover the vast majority of container-market operational questions. Gaps we're aware of: refrigerated container operations (temperature range, humidity, plug requirements), tank container specifications (baffles, dedicated cargo types, cleaning cycles), flat-rack lashing calculations, half-height dry-bulk economics, ADR/IMDG hazardous cargo rules for containers. If your project touches these edges, the standards logic in the existing resources still applies, check the size envelope, verify the CSC plate, plan the delivery, prepare the site. Then request a route-specific quote for the niche parameters.