Maritime Glossary
Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit
Also known as: TEU
The standard unit of container volume in shipping, based on a 20-foot ISO container.
Status: ActiveVerified: Source confidence: high (98%)
Full Definition
One TEU represents a standard ISO 20-ft container (6.096 m × 2.438 m × 2.591 m). A 40-ft FEU = 2 TEU; a 45-ft container ≈ 2.25 TEU. Container ship capacity, port throughput, and global trade volumes are measured in TEU. World container throughput exceeded 900 million TEU in 2023. The largest container ships now carry 24,000+ TEU.
Domain Tags
cargovessel measurementscommercial