Chicago’s metro area includes roughly 10 million people and is a critical hub in the shipping container market due to its strategic location at the intersection of major rail & highway systems. Hosting more than 400 corporate headquarters, Chicago dominates North America’s largest intermodal container market, where all containers move via rail or truck. About 25% of U.S. freight trains and half of all intermodal trains pass through the region.

Chicago connects goods from major U.S. ports like Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey, Savannah, and Houston to inland markets and export terminals. With the area serving as a transportation nucleus for North America. The city hosts the largest intermodal container transfer facility in North America, making it the top U.S. hub for rail freight volume. Imports, especially from Asia, typically arrive at West Coast ports and are transferred via rail to Chicago, where they are sorted and shipped to their final destinations across the Midwest and East Coast.

Exports to include agricultural products (corn, soybeans, wheat), machinery, and chemicals flow out through the same channels. Chicago’s robust warehousing infrastructure, freight-forwarding services, and proximity to major manufacturers and consumers make it a backbone of U.S. supply chains and a crucial inland market for global commerce.

This makes Chicago the top U.S. hub for transferring, sorting and storage of imports and exports. With its vast industrial relationships, combined with proximity to major manufacturers and consumers, solidify Chicago’s role as a vital inland logistics artery and a backbone of global and domestic supply chains. As a result, used shipping container inventory in the Chicago area is primarily healthy. The area is rarely out of stock of 20ft, 40ft and 40ft HC containers.