TEU vs FEU: Container Sizes & Capacities Explained

TEU vs FEU: Container Sizes and What They Actually Hold

A TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) is the capacity of one standard 20-foot container; an FEU (Forty-foot Equivalent Unit) equals two TEU. TEU is the industry's unit of account for vessel capacity, port throughput, and trade volumes, while actual bookings specify real equipment: 20'GP, 40'GP, 40'HC.

What the boxes actually hold

Rules of thumb every desk uses: a 20' general purpose container stows roughly 25–28 CBM of practically loadable space with a payload around 21–28 tonnes depending on tare and road limits; a 40'GP roughly 54–58 CBM; a 40' high cube (HC, one foot taller) roughly 68 CBM. Note the asymmetry: a 40' holds about double the volume of a 20' but the same or barely more payload — dense cargo (tiles, metal, paper) maxes out weight in a 20', while light voluminous cargo (furniture, garments) wants the 40'HC.

Road weight limits at origin and destination, not the container's rating, are usually the binding constraint — an overloaded legal-at-sea box can be illegal on the truck that collects it.

The pricing quirk and the planning unit

Ocean pricing does not scale linearly with TEU: a 40' typically costs far less than two 20's — often only 20–40% more than a single 20' on major lanes — because the carrier's handling cost is per lift, not per foot. That makes the 40'HC the workhorse of consumer-goods trades and makes 'can we consolidate two 20' bookings into one 40'?' a perennial margin question. TEU remains the statistical unit — vessel sizes (a 24,000-TEU ULCV), port league tables, and trade-lane volumes are all quoted in TEU even though almost nobody books 'a TEU'.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many CBM fit in a 20ft and 40ft container?

Practical stowage: roughly 25–28 CBM in a 20'GP, 54–58 CBM in a 40'GP, and about 68 CBM in a 40' high cube. Theoretical internal volumes are higher, but real cartons and pallets never stow perfectly.

Why is a 40ft container not twice the price of a 20ft?

Because the carrier's costs are dominated by per-container handling (lifts, chassis, slots), not length. On most lanes a 40' prices at a modest premium over a 20' — which is why volume cargo overwhelmingly moves in 40'HC equipment.

What is a high cube container?

A 40' (or 45') container one foot taller than standard — 9'6" versus 8'6" externally — adding roughly 10 CBM of stowage in the 40' size for essentially the same ocean freight. Check door-height and route clearance for road legs.

What does a port's TEU figure mean?

Total container throughput expressed in twenty-foot equivalents: each 20' counts as 1 TEU, each 40' as 2. It is a volume statistic, not a count of boxes.