B2B Sourcing — One Price, Delivered to Your Warehouse in Europe

📦 Container Loading Guide

Everything you need to know about how your order travels: container sizes, pallets vs floor loading, and how many units fit in each box.

The Three Standard Containers

Sea freight uses three standard dry containers. Internal dimensions are what matters for loading — and the usable volume is always a little below the theoretical maximum because cartons never tessellate perfectly.

5.90
20' DV
Internal: 5.90 × 2.35 × 2.39 m
28 m³ usable volume 21,700 kg max payload
12.03
40' DV
Internal: 12.03 × 2.35 × 2.39 m
58 m³ usable volume 26,680 kg max payload
12.03
40' HC
Internal: 12.03 × 2.35 × 2.69 m
68 m³ usable volume 26,460 kg max payload

Palletized vs Floor-Loaded

Cargo is loaded one of two ways. On pallets (europallet 1.20 × 0.80 m): faster handling at both ends, forklift-friendly, but the pallets themselves consume space — a 20ft takes 11 europallets, a 40ft and 40ft HC take 25. Floor-loaded (cartons stacked directly): roughly 15% more product fits in the same container, which lowers the per-unit freight share — the trade-off is slower manual loading and unloading.

Palletized

11 europallets in a 20ft · 25 in a 40ft / 40ft HC

Floor-loaded

≈ 15% more cargo in the same container

How an Order Becomes a Container

Units are packed in export cartons. Example: a carton of 530 × 360 × 430 mm = 0.082 m³ (CBM) holding 500 paper bags.

Cartons fill the container by volume — a 40ft HC has ~68 m³ usable, so 68 ÷ 0.082 ≈ 829 cartons ≈ 414,500 bags.

Weight is the second limit: a 40ft HC carries max ~26,460 kg. Whichever limit is reached first — volume or weight — defines the load.

Our price already includes the sea freight, customs handling and delivery: one price, delivered to your warehouse (DAP mainland Portugal). Other EU destinations quoted on request.

Units per Container, by Product

Estimated full-container quantities for the first variant of each product group, from carton volume and weight. Use the interactive Load Planner to mix products in one container.

Product Units / carton Carton CBM ~ / 20' ~ / 40' ~ / 40'HC
Kraft Paper Bags 500 0.082 170,500 353,500 414,500
Honeycomb Padded Mailers 500 0.016 875,000 1,812,500 2,125,000
Corrugated Paper Mailers 100 0.017 164,700 341,100 399,900
Gift Envelopes 100
Wrapping Paper Roll 1
Silicone Baking Paper 1,000 1,175,939 1,445,808 1,433,886
PE Cling Film (Food Wrap) 1 0.012 2,258 4,677 4,973
Stretch Film (Pallet Wrap) 1 1,007 1,239 1,228
HDPE Plastic Bags 6,000 8,845,108 10,875,000 10,785,325
Bubble Mailers & Envelopes 200
Insulated Thermal Bags 5
Tamper-Evident Security Bags 500 0.018 777,500 1,611,000 1,888,500
Thermal Labels (All Formats) 150 50,859 62,531 62,015
Thermal Paper Rolls (POS) 10 54,249 66,699 66,150
Cotton Pique Polo Shirts 2.500
Professional Aprons with Embroidery 1.900
Professional Uniform Shirts 7.800
Professional Vest 50 6.750 200 400 500
Heavy Duty Canvas Tote Bags 100 90,416 111,166 110,250
Embroidered Cotton Shopping Bags 100 108,499 133,399 132,300
Cotton Drawstring Bags & Pouches 500 542,499 666,999 661,500
Cotton Twill Shopping Bags 100 465,000 571,713 567,000
Jute Shopping Bags 200 162,750 200,100 198,450
Non-Woven Shopping Bags 500 465,000 571,713 567,000
PP Woven Shopping Bags 200 203,437 250,125 248,062
Zebra-Compatible Shipping Labels 300 23,933 29,426 29,183
Thermal Transfer Barcode Labels 1,000 90,416 111,166 110,250
Eco Kraft Paper Labels 1,000 81,375 100,050 99,225
Barcode & Price Labels 2,000 203,437 250,125 248,062
A4 Writing & Printing Paper 5 7,075 8,700 8,628
Cotton T-Shirts (Organic & BCI) 50 73,977 90,954 90,204
PE Thermal Cool Bags (Disposable) 50 0.079 17,700 36,700 43,000
Recycled LDPE Merchandise Bags
Flat Paper Shipping Envelopes
Corrugated Shipping Boxes

Plan your own container

Mix products, see the fill percentage live, and send the plan as a quote request.