MUMBAI: In order to lift the veil on the global economy and world trade, BBC News has adopted a shipping container and is tracking its progress for a year as it travels the globe. The initiative is called The Box.

BBC correspondents will follow the container as it criss-crosses continents with its various cargoes telling the stories behind those goods, those who make them and those who consume them. The 40-foot branded shipping container begins its worldwide journey today from Southampton.

The project, called The Box, will follow the container as it transports real goods, from car parts to footwear, in a genuine snapshot of global trade. Visitors to the BBC News website can interactively track the progress of the trailer online in real time through GPS tracking at bbc.co.uk/thebox.

BBC News Business and Economics editor Jeremy Hillman said: "The Box will highlight major issues and trends in the global economy at a critical and testing time. It is a creative, exciting project which will provide depth to our coverage of the credit crisis and global economic uncertainty. The stories behind The Box are sure to be illuminating and fascinating."

The Box will first travel to Scotland to be loaded with whisky and then put onto a container ship bound for China. The idea of The Box comes from a book of the same name by Marc Levinson which tells the story of how the humble shipping container changed the face of world trade.

The Container Shipping Information Service (CSIS) is working closely with the BBC on logistics and planning.