The containers we hold and will not sell

What the policy is

From the start of June to the end of November we hold roughly eighty containers — a mix of B and C grade, all water-suitable, all with new gaskets and tested valves — in a marked area at the back of the yard. They are not on the sales row, they are not in the quantity we quote against, and the order desk cannot sell them.

They are released for one thing: post-landfall water and fuel storage requirements from utilities, municipalities, county emergency management and established relief organisations. Priority in that order. Commercial orders do not touch them regardless of what anyone is willing to pay.

What happens after a landfall

Container demand after a Gulf storm has a very particular shape, and it is not the shape people expect. It is not primarily drinking water. It is:

• Non-potable water for sanitation and cleaning, in enormous quantity, immediately.
• Fuel storage and transfer for generators, where the demand is for containers that are certifiably clean and have never held anything incompatible.
• Chemical dosing for water treatment plants running on temporary supply.
• Wash-down and decontamination water for cleanup crews.
• Temporary containment and ballast — sandbag substitutes, sign weights, barrier fill.

The window is short and specific: demand spikes at roughly 48 hours after landfall, peaks around day four to six, and is substantially over inside three weeks. A container that arrives on day twelve has missed most of the need. That timing is the entire reason for holding stock rather than promising to source it.

Why not just buy more when it happens

Because everybody tries to, and the market clears in about a day. Post-landfall, every yard within five hundred miles is fielding the same calls, freight capacity into the affected area is consumed by higher-priority cargo, and lead times that are normally three days become three weeks. The containers that get used are the containers that already existed within a day's drive.

There is also a price problem. In that window, container prices in the affected region do move, sharply, and we are not interested in being part of that. Holding pre-committed stock at ordinary prices is the only way we have found to be useful without participating in it.

If you need them

Contact us directly and say what the requirement is for. Utilities, municipalities, county emergency management and established relief organisations are pre-cleared; anyone else we will talk to and use judgement. We will not ask for procurement paperwork in the first week — that can follow.

We will also, in that window, tell you honestly if somebody closer has what you need. There is a working informal network among Gulf Coast yards during storm response and it is the one time of year the trade behaves like a single organisation.

Most years nothing happens and the containers go back into the sales row in December, having sat in the sun for six months and needing a wash. That is the good outcome and it is what we are hoping for every year.