More and more of Asia's four billion inhabitants are entering the middle-income class. This means they purchase more items which then impact the small living spaces that are typical in Asia. And all of those possessions create a growing need for self storage.

In 1999, Steel Storage established the first self storage industry tradeshow in the United Kingdom. Now, they are launching the first tradeshow in the Asian markets. It will be held March 20-21, 2013 in the Langham Hotel in Hong Kong. [More]

For the self storage industry in the United State it is pretty hard for a facility to come up with something that is truly unique. There are simply too many facilities across the nation (right around 50,000); multiple other facilities are bound to have thought of it—whatever it is—as well. However, the same can’t be said for other countries. [More]

Sometimes managers and owners of self storage facilities feel that they out of new ideas of ways to expand and improve their business. Sometimes looking at what others in the industry do can spark new ideas – especially when they are not local businesses or even national businesses.

For example, look at what is happening in Australia. Gareth Taylor and Adam Gilchrist founded Zippy Shell Mobile Self Storage and Moving in Australia in 2007. It was one of the first mobile storage businesses in the country. In 2010, it came to the United States. Their concept is to deliver a storage container to customers, customers load it at their convenience, and the company picks up the unit and keeps it at their secure facility. [More]

Smartbox storage recently opened a new 2,000 square-meter secure storage facility in Braeside, Australia, which is a suburb of Melbourne. Smartbox, a locally owned company which also has a facility in Sydney, expanded their services to Braeside because of the growing demand for their mobile storage units. [More]

In these high-tech times, people looking to rent a self storage unit want instantaneous information and action. A new, online booking system released by RapidStor specifically for the self storage industry offers customers real-time prices for units and gives them the option of an immediate move-in. [More]

In Europe as in the United States, real estate analysts are recommending self storage as an investment worth considering, compared to other areas of the real estate market (such as residential and retail properties), which are foundering. [More]

About a year ago, two pioneers of the Australian self storage industry, Dallas Dogger and Sam Kennard, reported in Inside Self-Storage that the Australian self storage market was starting to decline. New inquiries about self storage in Australia had, as of last November, dropped about 10 to 20 percent from their peak in 2007 and 2008, possibly in response to the global recession. Earlier today, though, several investors reported in The Australian that the Australian self storage market is beginning to heat back up. [More]

World wheat supplies are at record highs this year, and projected to grow even higher -- and the surplus of wheat has led to a worldwide wheat storage shortage. The world currently has so much wheat that some analysts say the United States would have plenty of wheat even if not a single American farmer were to plant wheat this year. In fact, American growers are starting to sow less wheat, as Australian and Russian farmers have increased their wheat production so dramatically that Asian countries are finding it more economical to import their wheat from Australia and Russia than from the United States. The United States is still the world's largest exporter of wheat, but its share of the world wheat market has dropped to 19 percent this year, down from 29 percent in 2008, because so much wheat is already available elsewhere. [More]

Industry experts are predicting a shortage of storage space for manufacturers and retail businesses in the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne in the coming months. Both cities experienced high levels of container imports in February -- import levels that were more in line with what used to be considered normal in pre-recession Australia. For Sydney, February was the fifth straight month of record imports, according to Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald. And in Melbourne, imports have just begun to reach the level they were at prior to the onset of the global financial crisis. [More]