In North America, longer distances, and the availability of a load unit greater than
the standard forty foot maritime container, have favored an active transloading
function at gateways. The equivalent of three forty-foot maritime containers can be
transloaded into two domestic fifty-three footers. Maritime containers, after being
238 J.-P. Rodrigue and T. Notteboomtransloaded, can be brought back to the port terminal and the maritime shipping
network. The additional costs incurred by transloading are compensated by a
consolidation of inland load units with the outcome of anchoring value-added
function at gateways. The diffusion of slow steaming (ships reducing their average
cruising speed from the 23–25 to 18–19 knots) as a prevalent practice for containerized
maritime shipping will tie up a greater quantity of containers in transit
and incite transloading at gateways. Containers (the majority owned by shipping
companies) are thus kept within maritime circuits.