Shipping Container Dimensions - An explaination
Are you looking up figures about shipping container dimensions for cargo calculation? You’ll find it here.
In another article, I write about shipping container sizes, and basically summarize the main content of an ISO standard about container sizes.
Frankly, although the article provides precise figures, it’s rather bored and complicated to follow up.
For practitioners, a full and easily understood table of container specifications seems more useful. That’s why I continue to write this article.
From that perspective, the dimensions mentioned here are mostly approximate and given as indication. They’re close to those of the standard containers (if ISO has stipulated ever), and variations can be found between series and makes.
The first part explains a little about main dimensions. You may want to jump directly to the table of full shipping container dimensions in the second part.
Or, we'll move on to...
Container sizes
First, let’s talk about sizes. A shipping container is a empty rectangular cube with length, width, and height. Thus, two different set of sizes should be considered: internal and external.
The internal will show space available for storage. It can be deemed as useful storage space.
The external usually get more concerned when the surrounding area is limited and may restrict the smooth movement or convenient placement of boxes. For instance, a high cube container with external height of 9’6” lying on a chassis may exceed warehouse gates or road overpasses; then the external height should be a matter.
Besides, we also care about container door sizes. Why? Because it will show us how large the doors are when they are fully open, and whether a large cargo unit can be moved smoothly into and out of the container. We won’t ship cargo with container if we cannot stuff our cargo into the equipment, will we?
Capacity and weight
With above said basic sizes, how many cubic meter (CBM) are there inside a container? The figure I'm talking about is gross capacity.
Due to corrugated wall and roof, unless you load bulk or grain cargo which can fill almost all available space, you can only have approximate space for commodity packed in specific shape (e.g. bags, crate…).
When calculating loadable cargo volume, shippers should subtract certain wasting space among cargo packages. That means net cargo volume to be loaded is likely smaller than above nominated gross volume.
Aside from capacity, we’ll discuss types of weight (gross, tare, payload) which are also important shipping container dimensions.
Gross weight (also called gross mass or rating) is total maximum permissible weight of two things: the container itself (tare weight), and maximum cargo (payload) loaded inside it:
Gross weight = Tare weight + Payload
Alright, that’s enough for talking about shipping container dimensions. It’s now time for showing what the figures really are. Let’s move on to the next part.
Shipping Container Dimensions - in detail
As to external sizes, I want to summarize as follows:
- External width: 2.438m (8’) for all containers
- External length: as per type indicating
- External height: 2.591m (8’6”) for standard and 2.896m (9’6”) for high cube
And here're internal sizes and other dimensions:
STANDARD 20'
 |
Inside length | 19'4" | 5.89 m |
| Inside width | 7'8" | 2.33 m | |
| Inside height | 7'10" | 2.38 m | |
| Door width | 7'8" | 2.33 m | |
| Door height | 7'6" | 2.28 m | |
| Capacity | 1,172 ft³ | 33.18 m³ | |
| Tare weight | 4,916 lb | 2,229 kg | |
| Payload | 47,999 lb | 21,727 kg | |
| Gross weight | 52,915 lb | 23,956 kg |
40' CONTAINER
| Dimensions | Standard 40' | High Cube 40' | ||
| Inside length | 39'5" | 12.01 m | 39'5" | 12.01 m |
| Inside width | 7'8" | 2.33 m | 7'8" | 2.33 m |
| Inside height | 7'10" | 2.38 m | 8'10' | 2.69 m |
| Door width | 7'8" | 2.33 m | 7'8" | 2.33 m |
| Door height | 7'6" | 2.28 m | 8'5" | 2.56 m |
| Capacity | 2,390 ft³ | 67.67 m³ | 2,694 ft³ | 76.28 m³ |
| Tare weight | 8,160 lb | 3,701 kg | 8,750 lb | 3,968 kg |
| Payload | 59,040 lb | 26,780 kg | 58,450 lb | 26,512 kg |
| Gross weight | 67,200 lb | 30,481 kg | 67,200 lb | 30,480 kg |
OPEN TOP CONTAINER
| Dimensions | Open Top 20' | Open Top 40' | ||
| Inside length | 19'4" | 5.89 m | 39'5" | 12.01 m |
| Inside width | 7'7" | 2.31 m | 7'8" | 2.33 m |
| Inside height | 7'8" | 2.33 m | 7'8" | 2.33 m |
| Door width | 7'6" | 2.28 m | 7'8" | 2.33 m |
| Door height | 7'2" | 2.18 m | 7'5" | 2.26 m |
| Capacity | 1,136 ft³ | 32.16 m³ | 2,350 ft³ | 66.54 m³ |
| Tare weight | 5,280 lb | 2,394 kg | 8,490 lb | 3,850 kg |
| Payload | 47,620 lb | 21,600 kg | 58,710 lb | 26,630 kg |
| Gross weight | 52,900 lb | 23,994 kg | 67,200 lb | 30,480 kg |
REEFER CONTAINER
| Dimensions | Reefer 20' | Reefer 40' | ||
| Inside length | 17'8" | 5.38 m | 37'8" | 11.48 m |
| Inside width | 7'5" | 2.26 m | 7'5" | 2.26 m |
| Inside height | 7'5" | 2.26 m | 7'2" | 2.18 m |
| Door width | 7'5" | 2.26 m | 7'5" | 2.26 m |
| Door height | 7'3" | 2.20 m | 7'0" | 2.13 m |
| Capacity | 1,000 ft³ | 28.31 m³ | 2,040 ft³ | 57.76 m³ |
| Tare weight | 7,040 lb | 3,193 kg | 10,780 lb | 4,889 kg |
| Payload | 45,760 lb | 20,756 kg | 56,276 lb | 25,526 kg |
| Gross weight | 52800 lb | 23949 kg | 67056 lb | 30,415 kg |
FRAT RACK CONTAINER
| Dimensions | Flat Rack 20' | Flat Rack 40' | ||
| Inside length | 18'5" | 5.61 m | 39'7" | 12.06 m |
| Inside width | 7'3" | 2.20 m | 6'10" | 2.08 m |
| Inside height | 7'4" | 2.23 m | 6'5" | 1.95 m |
| Tare weight | 5,578 lb | 2,530 kg | 12,081 lb | 5,479 kg |
| Payload | 47,333 lb | 21,469 kg | 85,800 lb | 38,918 kg |
| Gross weight | 52,911 lb | 23,999 kg | 97,881 lb | 44,460 kg |
FLAT RACK COLLAPSIBLE
| Dimensions | Flat Rack Collapsible 20' | Flat Rack Collapsible 40' | ||
| Inside length | 18'6" | 5.63 m | 39'7" | 12.06 m |
| Inside width | 7'3" | 2.20 m | 6'10" | 2.08 m |
| Inside height | 7'4" | 2.23 m | 6'5" | 1.95 m |
| Tare weight | 6,061 lb | 2,749 kg | 12,787 lb | 5,800 kg |
| Payload | 61,117 lb | 27,722 kg | 85,800 lb | 38,918 kg |
| Gross weight | 67,178 lb | 30,471 kg | 98,587 lb | 44,718 kg |
PLATFORM CONTAINER
| Dimensions | Platform 20' | Platform 40' | ||
| Inside length | 19'11" | 6.07 m | 40'0" | 12.19 m |
| Inside width | 8'0" | 2.43 m | 8'0" | 2.43 m |
| Inside height | 7'4" | 2.23 m | 6'5" | 1.95 m |
| Tare weight | 6,061 lb | 2,749 kg | 12,783 lb | 5,798 kg |
| Payload | 52,896 lb | 23,993 kg | 66,397 lb | 30,117 kg |
| Gross weight | 58,957 lb | 26,742 kg | 79,180 lb | 35,915 kg |
Above part shows shipping container dimensions in details. They consist of container types which are popular in shipping world today. With other special containers, the specification may vary more or less. Yet, basically, the main dimensions should be similar to above-mentioned content.
I hope you find this article useful for your work, and I appreciate your comment and feedback regarding shipping container dimensions.
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