What does TEU stand for?

Twenty-foot equivalent unit — the volume of one standard 20 ft container, used to measure ships, ports and cargo volumes.

How many TEU is a 40 ft container?

Two. Eurostat's transport glossary counts containers longer than 40 ft, such as 45 ft units, as 2.25 TEU.

What is the difference between TEU and FEU?

An FEU, forty-foot equivalent unit, is one 40 ft container — equal to 2 TEU. Volumes are usually reported in TEU.

Term

TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit)

A TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, is the standard measure of container volume: one TEU is one 20 ft container, and a 40 ft container counts as two. Ports, shipping lines and ships are all measured in it — UNCTAD counted 920 million TEU handled in the world's ports in 2024.

Also called twenty-foot equivalent unit, TEU meaning, FEU, forty-foot equivalent unitUpdated 12 October 2026

How TEU are counted

One TEU is the volume of a standard 20 ft container (UNCTAD).
A 40 ft container counts as 2 TEU — sometimes written as one FEU, a forty-foot equivalent unit.
Eurostat's transport glossary counts containers longer than 40 ft as 2.25 TEU.

The world in TEU

UNCTAD reports that the world's ports handled 920 million TEU in 2024, growth of 6.9%, with Asia's developing economies handling 60% of it. Singapore's port alone handled 44.66 million TEU in 2025.

What the unit hides

TEU turns a mixed fleet of 20, 40 and 45 ft boxes into one number for ships, ports and market shares — but it measures space, not weight. In ONE's specifications a 20 ft dry box can carry 28,330 kg and a 40 ft dry box only 26,840 kg, so one TEU of tiles can outweigh two TEU of furniture.

Worked example: TEU versus boxes

A terminal handles 300 twenty-foot containers, 500 forty-foot and 50 forty-five-foot in a day.

TEU = 300 × 1 + 500 × 2 + 50 × 2.25 = 300 + 1,000 + 112.5 = 1,412.5 TEU from 850 boxes

A port's TEU figure is not a count of boxes — and a rate per TEU is half a rate per 40 ft container.

The mistake people make

Mixing TEU and containers in a rate or a forecast. Ocean freight is usually quoted per container, so a budget built on TEU needs converting box by box — a 40 ft container is two TEU of volume but one booking, one truck and one set of terminal charges.

FAQ