Container ship

Two Maersk Line container ships
Class overview
NameContainer ship
Subclasses
  • (1) Geared or gearless (as per cargo-handling type)
  • (2) Freighter or pure container (as per passenger carrier-type)
  • (3) Feeder or world-wide foreign-going vessel (as per trade)
  • (4) Panamax or post-Panamax vessel (as per breadth of vessel < or > than 32.2m respectively)
Built1956–present
In service9,535 ships as of 2010[1]
General characteristics
PropulsionTypically diesel since 1990[2]
SpeedTypically 16–25 knots (30–46 km/h) (19-29 mph)[2]
CapacityUp to 24,000 TEU
NotesReduced superstructure, containers stacked on deck, bulbous bow

A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport and now carry most seagoing non-bulk cargo.

Container ship capacity is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Typical loads are a mix of 20-foot (1-TEU) and 40-foot (2-TEU) ISO-standard containers, with the latter predominant.

Today, about 90% of non-bulk cargo worldwide is transported by container ships, the largest of which, from 2023 onward, can carry over 24,000 TEU.

  1. ^ UNCTAD, 2010, p. 33.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference mcnich-45 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).