I want to know how many cubic meters are in a 20 and 40 foot shipping container.

dixiedream-ga:

The actual volume of any particular container will depend on the
manufacturer of the container, and the shipping company's own
restrictions. However, generally speaking, you can count on a 20 foot
container holding at least 33 m^3, and a 40 foot container holding at
least 67 m^3.

You will also need to factor in the maximum allowable weight, should
the contents be too heavy for the container or the truck that will
need to haul it to and from the ports.

Here are several websites with information that you can use to verify this:

http://www.shipit.co.uk/ContainerSizes.htm

 - 20ft: 33.2 m^3 ; 40ft: 67.7 m^3 

http://www.alken-murray.com/OceanContainer.pdf

 - 20ft: 33.97 m^3 ; 40ft: 68.74 m^3

http://www.anchortrailers.com/shipping.asp

 - 20ft: 33.61 m^3 ; 40ft: 67.22 m^3 
 

However, perhaps the most important guide to go by, is the largest
China-US shipping company, COSCO:

http://www.cosco-usa.com/omd/containers.htm

 - 20ft: 33 m^3 (actually 33.1 m^3 by their measurements)
 - 40ft: 67 m^3 (actually 67.5 m^3 by their measurements)

I hope this helps,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

In order to calculate the number of cubic meters, you need to know
three dimensions: length, width, and height.

According to this site <http://www.discount-shipping.net/boxes2.html>
a 20' sea container has a 30 cubic meter capacity and a 40' container
has a 60 cubic meter capacity.

This site <http://www.warrenoil.com/export.html> has the same figures.

Following are the container dimensions used. They are standardized,

Dimension of 20 feet container: 20(L) x 8.5 (H) x 8 (W) vol. 28 cubic meter
Dimension of 40 feet container: 40(L) x 8.5 (H) x 8 (W) vol. 58 cubic meter
Dimensions of High Cube:        40(L) x 9.6 (H) x 8 (W) vol. 68 cubic meter

sorry for a mistake

>dimensions are in feed
>volume are in meters

To aht-ga,
if you know lots about importing and shipping, please find my question
in Business and money<small business<
Importing Products from other Countries. Questions on Import Process 
Asked by: italy500-ga 

Thanks