One of the biggest container ships in the world, the MSC Anna, recently visited California. Here's a video report about her arrival.
What I found most interesting was the comment that she'd come to collect empty containers, and take them back to China. This is a vitally important part of re-establishing international trade. With the shutdown across the globe, containers that were en route to their destinations were delivered - and then just sat there, with no way to get them back to the factories that sent them. Without those containers, the factories couldn't pack goods for export, even if they got their production lines running again. There was basically a complete, almost unbridgeable disconnect between producer and consumer, particularly when most container shipping shut down.
It's encouraging to see so large a ship filled with thousands upon thousands of empty containers. May they soon be filled again!
(The ship itself is an absolute monster, posing all sorts of challenges to pilots and port staff. You can read about that in this article. I found it very interesting.)
Peter
