How One Rule Made Container Ships Ten Times Bigger

Episode 65 of Global Trade with Fexingo dives into a single regulation that quietly rewrote the economics of ocean shipping: the 1984 Shipping Act in the United States. Lucas and Luna unpack how that law ended collective rate-setting by ocean carriers, triggered a wave of container ship gigantism, and concentrated global trade into just a handful of mega-vessels. They trace the knock-on effects: from port congestion in Los Angeles to the rise of alliances like 2M and Ocean Alliance, and why the largest container ship today can carry 24,000 boxes — ten times what sailed in 1980. Specific numbers and a clear before-and-after make this a concrete look at how one legal change reshaped the physical backbone of world trade. No fluff, just the rule that changed the game. #ShippingAct1984 #ContainerShips #MaritimeTrade #OceanShipping #GlobalSupplyChains #TradePolicy #PortCongestion #Containerization #Alliances #Maersk #MSC #Logistics #InternationalTrade #WTO #Economics #Business #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo