Shipping containers are used to carry goods over land as well as sea. They can be of various shapes and sizes. They are also used for storage and handling. The containers have helped a lot in changing the way goods are carried and in globalization of trade. The best part about the shipping containers is that they are reusable. Find out about the shipping container dimensions and the standard way of measuring these dimensions.

The shipping containers are made in such a way that the goods inside are well protected from the weather outside and they also protect the things being transported. Some shipping containers are so huge that they can even carry vehicles whereas some are relatively smaller and carry less bulky products.

Types of Shipping Containers

• The shipping containers can be an intermediate bulk shipping carrier. These are called IBC. It is used to transport fluids and bulk materials. These containers are made of plastic, steel, stainless steel and composite. Some of these containers can also be fold able. These are used to transport fluids.
• Another type of shipping container called flexible intermediate bulk container is again a standardized container of large dimension that is used in shipping. These are used to store and sort large quantities of granular products.
• Bulk box is again a common type of shipping container that is used as a bulk bin, bulk box and pallet size box that are used for shipping of bulk quantities.
• Another common type of shipping container that is used is insulated shipping container. These used to ship temperature sensitive products. These ensure that the freshness of the products is maintained.
• Unit load shipping container is used to transport cargo in a commercial aircraft. This helps the ground crew to manage the cargo better.
• Specialized shipping containers are used to ship weapons and other aviation components. This is mainly because these containers may need cushioning, bracing, locks, etc.
• Some shipping containers also have double doors.

These are more or less the various types of shipping containers that are used all over the world in trade.

Shipping Container Dimensions

TEU stands for twenty feet equivalent units. It is nothing but an inexact unit of cargo capacity that is used to describe the capacity of a container ship. It is a container shipping term that is often used in container ships. This volume is based on a twenty foot long inter-modal container. It is the standard size of a twenty foot long metal container that can be transferred between different modes of transport like the ship, trucks and trains easily. They can fit in all these modes and this is why is commonly used. There are exceptions though and the size that is most commonly used is the height of eight feet. There are shipping containers that can even be as long as forty five feet. As we have mentioned TEU is an inexact measurement. This is exactly why it is often referred to as twenty foot wide and eight feet wide. This is exactly how we can calculate the volume range of a shipping container that can be anything between six eighty to thousand five hundred cubic feet.

TEU Unit

The shipping container dimensions are selected as per the size and volume of the cargo. There are some specific ones for machinery and heavy cargo and there are some for light cargo. Some shipping containers can allow weight up to sixty seven thousand pounds. The bigger the ship the more TEU it can carry. For example Emma Maersk can carry up to eleven thousand TEU that can be converted to around fourteen thousand tons. TEU basically helps to understand how much cargo the container and the ship is loaded with. It also is a significant proof how much cargo a port can handle.

Shipping containers indeed play a vital role in the world trade. Without them it is almost impossible to imagine business and trade. We hope that by reading this article you will get a good idea of TEU too and how it is used in ships. It is a very vital data and is a significant factor in world trade.

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