Let's run the numbers... a typical container cargo ship might be say 20,000 TEU and use apx 300 tons of fuel per day. With trans-pacific voyage of 12,000km at

Let's run the numbers... a typical container cargo ship might be say 20,000 TEU and use apx 300 tons of fuel per day. With trans-pacific voyage of 12,000km at 20 o 24 knots (apx 40kph), we're looking at voyage times of 12.5 days -- let's add a bit of slop and say 15 days. This totals to 300 * 15 = 4500 tons of fuel, or @ $550/ton => $2,475,000k for fuel costs. So more like $2.5mil per voyage (not $250k). 20,000 TEU's (or apx 10,000 "large" containers as hauled by a truck or train car). At apx 15 tons per container, that's 150,000 tons of cargo. So cargo ships use apx 30kg of fuel per ton of cargo (or $16.50 per ton of cargo). So how much fuel used is to move 1kg of cargo across the Pacific ocean (12,000 km) by ship? It works out to be about 30cc (1 fluid ounces or 2 tablespoons) or $0.0165 (or €0.015) of fuel to transport 1 kg of cargo across the pacific. An iphone (box and all) weighs just 200g, so it would cost 1/3rd of a penny of fuel to move across the pacific by ship (about a teaspoon). That seems pretty damn efficient to me. I suspect that many people don't realize just how freaking massive modern cargo ships are. To put it into perspective, they are often bigger than the largest modern aircraft carriers and multiple times larger than WW2 era aircraft carriers/battleships.