What is containerised cargo

Containerised cargo is the cargo that travels inside containers. It is measured in tonnes and is part of general cargo, together with conventional cargo, which is moved loose, on pallets, in coils or as individual pieces.

It is the other way of measuring container traffic. TEU count boxes, whether full or empty; tonnes of containerised cargo count what is inside them. Two ports with the same TEU can handle very different tonnages depending on how many containers travel empty.

Port statistics include the tare weight of the container in this figure. Almost any manufactured product travels in a container today, as does a growing share of goods that used to be shipped in bulk or in a conventional hold.