Marine Surveyors Lexicon

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TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit)


A standard size designation of an ocean cargo container, since the early containers were 20 feet in length.

Later containers were 40 feet in length and were sized by their cargo carrying capacity in terms of 20 foot units; i.e. a 40 foot container is the equivalent of two 20 foot containers; 1 FEU = 2 TEU's. Vessels are sized by the number of containers of a certain size they can carry; i.e. the number of TEU's or FEU's.