Refurbished Shipping Containers

What you are buying

Done properly the sequence is repair first and paint last. Perforated steel is cut out and new plate welded in, surface rust is ground back to bright metal, the floor is checked and sections replaced where it has softened, gaskets that have taken a set are renewed, and only then is the container prepped and painted. Every one of those steps costs money, and every one of them becomes invisible the moment the colour goes on.

Which is exactly why the question to ask is what happened before the paint. A repaint over live rust looks identical on the day it lands and will bubble through in a season or two. Ask whether steel was replaced, whether the floor was touched, whether the gaskets are new. A yard that has done the work will happily tell you, and the answer is worth more than the photographs.

It is worth being clear about what refurbishment is not, as well. Repainting does not lift the grade. A unit that was not watertight beforehand does not become watertight because it is now one colour. Where the container has to keep rain off what goes inside it, that has to be established on the condition of the unit and confirmed, never inferred from how tidy it looks.

Grade matters more than anything else in a container quote. Grade is what decides whether the box keeps water out. Anything sold as cargo-worthy is inspected wind and watertight before release — for storage use, which is separate from the CSC certification an export job needs — and new single-trip units, one loaded voyage with rubbers that have barely weathered, are sealed as well. As-is is the cheap end and carries no watertight claim at all: expect a previous repair, a floor section that has gone soft, or a gasket that no longer pulls up hard against the frame. We list those faults and photograph them on request, before delivery, so nothing turns up as a surprise when the truck does. If what goes inside has to stay dry, start at cargo-worthy.