Blue Water Facts Liner intelligence

Liner intelligence · Updated 2026-07-06

Identify any ocean container in seconds.

Blue Water Facts is the working reference for shippers, NVOCCs and forwarders. We profile ocean carriers, the standard ISO container formats and the alliance member lists.

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Container formats

See our data-accuracy findings, including what we removed and why →

The independent reference for ocean liner shipping

Every export shipment moves under a paper trail of three letters and a check digit. Those four-letter container prefixes — the ISO 6346 owner code — tell you who actually owns the box, who controls the equipment, and which carrier you should call when the container goes missing. Blue Water Facts previously published a per-carrier owner-prefix registry. In July 2026 an internal audit found that most of the long-tail codes could not be independently verified against the Bureau International des Containers, so we removed that per-carrier list rather than keep publishing unverified codes (see /accuracy/ for the full findings).

We document every standard ISO container format from a 20' general purpose dry box up to a 40' high-cube reefer, with internal dimensions, payload limits and cubic capacity drawn from the IICL and ISO 668 standard. And we cover the ocean alliances — the Gemini Cooperation, Premier Alliance, Ocean Alliance, MSC Standalone Network — that determine which vessels carry your cargo on the East-West trades.

Blue Water Facts is built for working professionals: forwarders triaging a tracking ticket, supply-chain analysts modelling capacity scenarios, ocean carrier sales teams checking competitor coverage on a corridor, and the long tail of independent NVOCCs who need to verify a partner's footprint before signing a service contract.

Container ship berthed at a port terminal beneath gantry cranes
Container terminal gantry cranes loading an ocean carrier — illustrative photo.

Browse ocean carriers

Click through to any carrier for the how-to-track guidance.

Denmark Maersk Line Switzerland MSC France CMA CGM China COSCO Shipping Germany Hapag-Lloyd Singapore Ocean Network Express Taiwan Evergreen Marine Taiwan Yang Ming South Korea HMM Israel ZIM Hong Kong OOCL Taiwan Wan Hai Lines Singapore Pacific International Lines South Korea KMTC Line South Korea Sinokor Merchant Marine Hong Kong TS Lines South Korea SM Line Thailand RCL Feeder Singapore X-Press Feeders China China United Lines Australia ANL New Zealand Neptune Pacific Direct Line Singapore Swire Shipping USA Matson

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Container formats reference

The standard inventory of intermodal boxes — 20' GP, 40' GP, 40' HC, reefers, open tops, flat racks, ISO tanks and bulk containers — with the dimensions every shipper needs to plan a load.

22G1 20' General Purpose Dry Container 42G1 40' General Purpose Dry Container 45G1 40' High Cube Dry Container L5G1 45' High Cube Dry Container 22R1 20' Refrigerated Container 42R1 40' Refrigerated Container 45R1 40' High Cube Refrigerated Container 22U1 20' Open Top Container