Calculate freight container rates for your international container shipments and then join Freightos to compare, book, and manage your upcoming shipments.
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Instantly compare air, ocean, and trucking freight quotes
from 75+ providers with the perfect balance of price and transit time.
Refreshingly easy logistics management with on-demand tracking,
live updates, and proactive issue resolution from providers you can trust.
Our Freight Team is available to help with every step
of the shipment process, from documentation to delivery specifics.
There are many factors that determine the cost of FCL (full container load) container shipping.
Here are some of the most important ones:
A container being sent from Shanghai to Los Angeles, for example, is always going to be less costly to ship than one being sent on a less common route.
The standard container dimensions are 20 and 40 feet. But there are also other variations, including different sizes and refrigerated units.
The global freight industry is dictated by basic economics. During the busiest shipping seasons, container rates go up –– sometimes substantially.
Below is a port-to-port container shipping rates chart for cost ranges of common international shipping destinations (from Shanghai, China):
| Destination country | 20’ Container | 40’ Container |
|---|---|---|
| United States (Los Angeles) | $1,117 – $1,234 | $1,392 – $1539 |
| United States (New York) | $1,953 – $2,158 | $2,437 – $2,694 |
| India (Mumbai) | $550 – $1,350 | $681 – $1,676 |
| United Kingdom (Felixstowe) | $565 – $889 | $1,026 – $1,552 |
| Germany (Bremerhaven) | $624 – $859 | $1,114 – $1,530 |
| Australia (Melbourne) | $330 – $900 | $660 – $1,800 |
You can view live international freight rates, prices and trends, updated daily from the world’s largest freight rate index on the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX).
Calculating the cost of half a container is not as straightforward as halving the cost of a full container.
That’s because space in an LCL (less-than-container-load) shipment is more expensive per foot than space in a full container.
In fact, every shipment has a tipping point where shipping LCL can become more expensive than a full container!
If you want to ship a 20-foot container instead of a 40-foot container, it’s worth noting that the latter usually costs just 20-25% more than the former.
A trustworthy logistics provider will always inform you when it may be worthwhile to upgrade to a larger container.
The total cubic capacity of a TEU is 1,172 cu ft (33.2 m3) and the payload capacity is 55,126.9 lbs (25,000 kg).
In other words, you can fit between 9-10 standard pallets in a TEU.
The total cubic capacity of an FEU is 2,389 cu ft (67.7 m3) and the payload capacity is 61,200 lbs (27,600 kg).
You can fit between 20-21 standard pallets in an FEU.
Container shipping rates are determined by the form of the cargo, the mode of transport, the weight of your goods, and the distance and popularity of the delivery destination from the point of origin.
