WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) - Few tools of the global economy have survived without major innovations as long as the shipping container. The supply ructions around the world are presenting an opportunity to test that incumbency. As ports, rail yards and warehouses get clogged up with the standardised metal boxes both empty and full of goods, the stars are aligning for a product that was a hard sell before the pandemic: shipping containers that fold up accordion- or collapsible-style to as much as one-fifth their usual size. At least, that's what their backers are hoping. Almost 27 per cent of the 862 million crates measured in 20-foot equivalent units that pass through the world's ports this year will be empty, according to Drewry estimates. The cost to the shipping industry to get them to places where they will be loaded is about US$20 billion (S$27 billion), Boston Consulting Group has calculated. Many will spend days or weeks taking up space in already-jammed holding areas and depots, compounding delays along supply chains. All this has executives everywhere from Amazon.com to pop culture-inspired bobblehead maker Funko and milk-alternative producer Oatly grappling with how to get th...