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Logistics & Supply Chain vocabulary · Transport Modes

Container

Meaning in logistics & supply chain, with examples

/kənˈteɪnər/nounCore term

In logistics & supply chain, container means: A large steel box of standard size used to carry goods by ship, train and truck without unloading them when they move from one vehicle to another.

In Turkish: konteyner

How it is used

The basic unit of sea freight. The most common types are 20-foot and 40-foot containers, including the 40-foot high cube, plus reefers for chilled or frozen cargo. Containers are stuffed (loaded), sealed, gated in at the port, discharged and returned empty.

Example sentences

  1. We need two 40-foot containers for the next order.

  2. The container was loaded and sealed at the factory, so customs only checked the seal number.

Common collocations

  • 20-foot container
  • 40-foot high cube
  • container seal
  • load a container
  • empty container
  • FCLShort for full container load: a sea shipment in which one shipper's goods fill or use a whole container on their own.
  • LCLShort for less than container load: a small sea shipment that shares a container with goods from other shippers and pays only for the space it uses.
  • TEUShort for twenty-foot equivalent unit: a standard measure of container capacity in which one 20-foot container is 1 TEU and one 40-foot container is 2 TEU.
  • ocean freightThe transport of goods by ship, mostly in containers; the cheapest way to move large volumes over long international distances.
  • demurrageA charge paid when a container stays at the port or terminal longer than the free time the carrier allows, or when a chartered ship is held beyond the agreed loading time.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Transport Modes

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