Plastic bulk containers in Tennessee

Tennessee has grown into an auto state: 38,791 motor vehicle parts jobs and 19,453 in assembly in 2025, with parts manufacturing at 3.5 times its national share. Middle Tennessee, along I-65 and I-24 south of Nashville, carries most of it.

Memphis carries the warehousing. Shelby County had 11,727 warehousing jobs, and Wilson and Rutherford counties east of Nashville another 15,419 between them. Distribution centres use collapsible containers for returns and for staging, where a container that folds out of the way when empty saves floor.

Chemical manufacturing adds 27,214 jobs and food manufacturing 40,320. Knoxville is on both I-75 and I-81, which puts east Tennessee plants a day from Michigan and from the Northeast. For a loop that long, folding pays: a 48 x 40 x 32 in collapsible goes back 240 to a trailer instead of 90.

Nissan builds at Smyrna, GM at Spring Hill, Volkswagen at Chattanooga, and Ford's BlueOval City is being built west of Memphis, so most of the state sits within reach of an assembly plant drawing parts in containers. Memphis's FedEx hub, the largest air cargo operation in the US, means warehouses around the airport handle goods flown in overnight. Tennessee whiskey distilleries around Lynchburg and Tullahoma buy grain in bulk. Container loops in the state often cross into Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia; ask for folded and upright counts per trailer.

Tennessee buyers are parts suppliers to Smyrna, Spring Hill and Chattanooga, plus distillers and Memphis warehouses.