Definition
The standard capacity unit equal to one 20ft container, used to measure vessel and terminal volumes.
A TEU represents the volume of one standard 20ft container. It is the industry’s common denominator: a 40ft container counts as two TEU, so ship sizes, port throughput, and trade-lane volumes are all quoted in TEU.
The TEU normalizes mixed fleets of 20ft and 40ft boxes into a single comparable figure. The largest container vessels today exceed 24,000 TEU of nominal capacity.
Related terms
FEU (Forty-foot Equivalent Unit)
A capacity unit equal to one 40ft container, i.e. two TEU.
FCL (Full Container Load)
An ocean shipment that fills (or is booked to fill) an entire container, used by a single consignee.
High Cube Container (HC)
A container that is one foot taller than a standard box (9ft 6in), giving extra internal volume.
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