Container carriers pay a big price for transporting empty containers around the world seas. In fact, the price comes to several billion dollars a year, money that the carriers could benefit from big-time, especially in now when the struggle to turn a profit in the market seems fiercer today than it has in a long time.

For years the industry has been trying various models to find a solution to the significant costs related to transporting the equipment around due to the massive imbalance in the global trade, on the tradelane between Asia and Europe in particular. But with no luck, and consultants from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) will now try to solve this problem with a new platform called BCG xChange.