Definition
A TEU is the unit used to measure container traffic: it is equivalent to one container twenty feet long, about six metres. A forty-foot container, the most common, counts as two TEU.
The abbreviation stands for Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit. As containers come in different sizes, counting them by units would not allow comparison: the TEU reduces them all to a single measure. It is used to express the traffic of a port, the capacity of a container ship or that of a terminal.
The TEU measures boxes, not weight or value. A full container counts the same as an empty one, and a container transhipped from one ship to another is counted twice, once when it is unloaded and once when it is loaded. That is why TEU figures are read alongside the tonnes of containerised cargo and with transhipment separated from import and export traffic.
The figure · August 2026
Year to date · January–August 2026
12.6 million TEU
August 2026 only
1.56 million TEU
First port
3.75 million TEU
Transhipment TEU
6.47 million TEU
Spanish ports ranked by container traffic in 2026
Spanish ports handled 12.6 million TEU in the year to August 2026, 0.8% more than in the same period of 2025. In August alone, the figure was 1.56 million TEU, 2.3% less than in August 2025.
The full ranking, the trend and the table are in the indicator Spanish ports ranked by container traffic. To explore the data in detail, see PortStats · containers.