Container Terminals & Cargo Handling Infrastructure Notes

Last reviewed 30 Sept 2026 · 7 min read

Containerisation

Containers are standardised steel boxes that carry general cargo. Containerisation speeds up cargo handling, reduces damage and theft, and allows a smooth transfer between ship, rail and road.

TEU — twenty-foot equivalent unit (one 20-foot container); FEU — forty-foot equivalent unit (= 2 TEU).
Standard dimensions: 20-ft container — 6.06 m long, 2.44 m wide, 2.59 m high (external); 40-ft — 12.19 m long; high-cube boxes are 2.90 m high. The maximum gross weight is about 30 t for a 20-ft and 30–32 t for a 40-ft box.
Ship sizes are given in TEU capacity: feeder ships (up to about 3,000 TEU), Panamax (up to about 5,000 TEU), post-Panamax (up to about 10,000+), and ultra-large container vessels (ULCV) with over 20,000 TEU, with drafts of 15–16 m or more.

Layout of a container terminal

A terminal is a transfer point with three sub-systems: the waterside (berth), the yard (storage) and the landside (gate, road and rail). The efficient layout arranges the flow: ship ⇄ quay ⇄ yard ⇄ gate.

FormulaMain areas of a container terminal

Berth (quay) — a long, straight, deep quay with quay cranes (ship-to-shore, STS) on rails along the edge; berth length about 1.1–1.2 times the ship length; depth alongside 15–18 m or more for the largest ships; the apron behind the crane rail for vehicles.
Container yard (CY) — the storage of import, export, empty and reefer (refrigerated) containers, with blocks arranged in rows and bays and stacked 4–6 high (or higher with RTG/RMG).
Container freight station (CFS) — a warehouse in which the cargo of LCL (less-than-container load) is stuffed and unstuffed.
Gate complex — the entry and exit gates with document and cargo checks, weighing and scanning.
Rail yard (on-dock rail) — rail sidings and gantry cranes to load containers onto trains.
Maintenance and repair (M&R) shop and equipment workshop, the administration building and control tower.
Reefer stacks with power points and monitoring.
Hazardous cargo (IMO class) area, separated by a safe distance.

Handling equipment

Equipment	Function
Ship-to-shore (STS) quay crane	A large gantry crane on rails, lifting containers between the ship and the quay using a spreader (twist locks); outreach 45–70 m; lifting capacity 40–65 t (twin-lift and tandem lift options); productivity about 25–35 moves per hour per crane
Rubber-tyred gantry crane (RTG)	A wheeled gantry crane that stacks containers in the yard blocks (spans 6–8 rows plus a truck lane), 1-over-5 or more high; flexible and can move between blocks
Rail-mounted gantry crane (RMG)	Moves on rails; higher capacity and automation possible; used in high-density yards and rail terminals
Straddle carrier	Drives over the container, lifts it and carries it; stacks 1-over-2 or 3; flexible but requires a lot of area and is costly to maintain
Reach stacker	A heavy forklift-type machine with a boom that lifts containers over the ones in front; used for small terminals and ICDs
Terminal tractor and trailer (internal transfer vehicle)	Transports containers between the quay and the yard
Automated guided vehicle (AGV)	Driverless transport in automated terminals
Forklifts, empty container handlers, top-loaders	For special handling

The crane productivity determines the ship's time in port, and the number of cranes per berth is chosen so that the ship can be worked in the desired time.

Terminal capacity and yard area

Berth productivity

Berth capacity (in TEU per year) is estimated from the number of cranes, moves per hour and operating hours:

Capacity = N_{c} \times P_{c} \times H \times U \times TEU/move

$N_{c}$ = cranes in operation per berth, $P_{c}$ = productivity per crane (moves/hour), $H$ = working hours per year, $U$ = berth utilisation (typically 0.5–0.7), and TEU per move about 1.4–1.6 (the mix of 20-ft and 40-ft boxes).

Yard storage capacity

The static capacity is the number of ground slots multiplied by the stacking height, less the space lost to lanes and the working factor. The yard area required:

N_{g} = \frac{V \times T _{d} \times k _{p}}{365 \times h _{s}}, A = \frac{N _{g} \times a _{s l o t}}{f _{a}}

where $N_{g}$ = number of ground slots, $V$ = annual throughput (TEU), $T_{d}$ = average dwell time (days), $k_{p}$ = peaking factor (1.2–1.5), $h_{s}$ = average stacking height, $a_{s l o t}$ = floor area of one TEU slot (about 14.6 m², from 6.06 × 2.44 m), and $f_{a}$ = area utilisation factor (the fraction of the yard that can hold slots after allowing for lanes, aisles and margins, about 0.6–0.75).

Worked ExampleExample — yard area

A terminal handles 500,000 TEU a year. Dwell time = 5 days, peaking factor = 1.3, average stacking height = 3 and area utilisation $f_{a}$ = 0.7.

Ground slots: $N_{g} = \frac{500 , 000 \times 5 \times 1.3}{365 \times 3} = \frac{3 , 250 , 000}{1095} \approx 2, 968$ .

Area: $A = \frac{2 , 968 \times 14.6}{0.7} \approx 61, 900 m^{2} \approx 6.2 ha$ of container yard, to which the CFS, gate, rail and workshop areas are added.

Terminal planning should always be checked with a simulation of the operations.

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