# TEU

> Twenty-foot equivalent unit — the standard measure of container capacity for ships, ports, and trade volumes.

## Record

- Record type: Encyclopedia entry
- Canonical page: https://admiralsatlas.com/en/maritime-units/teu/
- Last updated: 2026-08-31

## Article

A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) represents the space occupied by one standard 20-foot ISO container. It is the universal yardstick of the container industry: ship capacity, port throughput, and trade flows are all quoted in TEU. A standard 40-foot container equals two TEU (one FEU).

Containership sizes have grown dramatically: early cellular ships of the 1970s carried 1,500–3,000 TEU; the Panamax limit stood near 4,500 TEU until the expanded Panama Canal locks opened in 2016 (Neopanamax, ~14,000 TEU); today’s largest ultra-large container vessels (ULCVs) exceed 24,000 TEU.

Note that TEU measures slots, not weight or actual boxes moved. Port statistics count every handled container in TEU terms, so a single 40-foot box moved once adds two TEU to throughput figures.

## Related records

- [Deadweight tonnage (DWT)](/en/maritime-units/deadweight-tonnage/index.md)