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BBC’s “The Box”, the year long experiment that explores globalization and world trade, has made its way into the States via the Port of Los Angeles.  According to the BBC website, the box arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday full of consumer goods including tape measures and fashion accessories.  The Box is continuing its journey on rail to New Jersey via Chicago.

The Box’s trip started in Southampton, UK last September, transporting Scotch Whiskey to Shanghai.  During that first voyage, the Box passed through the pirate infested waters of The Gulf of Aden.  gCaptain has actually received unconfirmed reports that a group of pirates did board the vessel and searched the cargo, but was quickly released when no rum was found.

In all seriousness BBC tells of the real problems facing The Box:

But the biggest challenge has come from the meltdown in the world economy.

For instance, the charter rates for container ships have plummeted by as much as 60% or more.

A few years ago shipping companies in South Korea, Italy or Scandinavia were enjoying an unprecedented boom.

There simply wasn’t enough capacity to ship all the cars, washing machines and lap top computers the world was snapping up.

The shipping companies built new ships, more expensive and bigger then ever before – now they don’t need them.

For now we are just going to watch and see where the Box will be headed next.  By they way, a FREE gCaptain t-shirt goes to the first reader to send us an ORIGINAL picture of the Box in the US.

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