TEU, or Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit, is a standard measure of cargo volume, especially when referring to container ships.
Understanding TEU
- Definition: A TEU represents the volume of a standard 20-foot long shipping container.
- Purpose: It allows for standardized tracking and comparison of cargo capacity across different ships and ports.
- Calculation:
- One 20-foot container = 1 TEU
- One 40-foot container (FEU - Forty-Foot Equivalent Unit) = 2 TEUs
TEU in Practice
Large container ships are rated by how many TEUs they can carry. For example, modern mega-ships can transport over 18,000 TEU, with some exceeding 21,000 TEU. This capacity is crucial for global trade and logistics.
Example
Imagine a ship capable of carrying 10,000 twenty-foot containers. That ship has a capacity of 10,000 TEU. If the ship carries 5,000 forty-foot containers, it's still carrying the equivalent of 10,000 TEU (since each forty-foot container equals two TEUs).
