How Many Honeycomb Cardboard Sheets Fit in a 40HQ Container? Pallet Patterns and Stack Heights

TL;DR

• At a 1,200 × 1,000 mm pallet footprint a 40HQ gives 20 pallet positions on one level. With the 1,100 mm stacks we normally build, that is 2,200 sheets of 10 mm honeycomb board or 220 sheets of 100 mm board.
• Honeycomb runs out of height long before it runs out of weight, so the 28,600 kg payload rating of the example unit is rarely the number that decides your count.
• Send sheet length, sheet width, board thickness and destination port. We return a stacking plan and a pallet count for the container you are actually booking.

This page answers the question importers and display builders keep sending us: how many honeycomb cardboard sheets fit in a 40HQ container. There is no single answer, but there is a fixed calculation. Once sheet size and board thickness are set, the count follows from three container measurements and one stack height.

The container numbers we work from

Every loading plan starts from the inside of the box, not the outside. A 40HQ is nominally 40 × 8 × 9 ft 6 in, and none of those outside figures tell you what your sheets see. We work from internal length, width and height, and from the door opening, because a loaded pallet that cannot pass the door turns into a repack on the quay.

These measurements are one published equipment example for a 40ft high cube, taken from the 40ft High Cube container guide published by iContainers, updated 21 September 2026, which tabulates a carrier's equipment example. That page also warns that ratings differ between models and that the allocated unit has to be confirmed. Use the table as the arithmetic baseline for this page, not as a description of the specific box you will be given.

Height decides the count, not weight

Honeycomb board is paper with air locked inside it. The range we list in the honeycomb cardboard sheet collection is built from recycled kraft paper, laminated with a water-based PVA glue, and runs from 8 mm to 150 mm thick. Our product copy for the fire-retardant grade describes the board as roughly 80% lighter than the timber panel it replaces. That lightness is exactly why the payload rating sits at the bottom of the list of deciding factors: a container holding 26 m³ of board is nowhere near 28,600 kg.

Two things move the real number. The first is the stack height you are willing to take per pallet; 1,100 mm is what we build for sheets, and 1,000 mm when the sheets are thin and a second level is planned. The second is whether the bottom stack can carry the top one. Two pallets of 1,244 mm reach 2,488 mm and pass the door, but 2,488 mm of stacked paperboard is not the same load case as 2,488 mm of timber, and thin cores crush under point loads.

This is also where the calculation stops being useful. On a one-off order of a few hundred 10 mm pads for a single trade show, do not book a 40HQ around them; the pallet positions you never fill are money spent on air, and a shared or smaller unit is the cheaper answer. On 100 mm and 150 mm door cores the problem flips: the height stops being the limit and the weight, banding and end protection of each stack start to decide how the load is built. Talk to us before you fix the container on those.

Worked example: 1,200 × 1,000 mm sheets in a 40HQ

The table below uses 1,200 × 1,000 mm sheets, 1,100 mm stacks and a 144 mm pallet. Sheets per stack is the stack height divided by the board thickness, rounded down; the one-level column is 20 pallet positions, the two-level column is 40. The honeycomb panel and sheet page lists the thickness range these figures come from.

Those counts are sheets, not cartons, and every one of them moves if the sheet size changes. The same 1,100 mm stack on a 1,000 × 1,000 mm pallet gives 24 floor positions instead of 20. A 2,400 × 1,200 mm panel only fits one across the 2,350 mm width, so a single level holds five of them. This is why we quote a loading plan per sheet size and not a site-wide pieces-per-container figure.

Pallet patterns: what fits the floor and what wastes it

The 40HQ floor measures 12,032 × 2,350 mm. A 1,200 × 1,000 mm pallet fits ten deep and two across, which gives 20 positions and 32 mm of slack at the end wall. A 1,200 × 800 mm EUR pallet also gives 20 positions, ten lengthwise and two across, but leaves 750 mm of width that no third pallet will use. Drop to a 1,000 × 1,000 mm pallet and you gain four positions, 24 in total, which is the pattern we build when the sheet is under 1,000 mm wide.

Layer pads are the part of the load that gets forgotten. Honeycomb sheets are often shipped on top of each other with a pad between levels, and those pads take height that the sheets then cannot use. If you are also loading corrugated sheets, slip sheets or layer pads in the same booking, look at what the corrugated sheets and layer pads range adds to the stack height before you approve the plan. For the cube arithmetic behind a mixed load, our page on how CBM is calculated in shipping sets out the same method we use here.

What a stacking plan needs from you

Before we confirm a pallet pattern and a stack height, we ask for five inputs:

• Sheet length × width in millimetres, and whether the sheet is square-cut or die-cut;
• Board thickness and whether the core is the regular cell or the small cell used for heavy items;
• Pallet or loose loading, and whether the pallets are exchangeable (EUR, 1,200 × 800 mm) or one-way;
• Destination port and the inland leg, because a tight yard or a rail ramp changes how high we dare to build;
• Whether the sheets travel alone or share the container with other cartons.

The cardboard sheets and rolls range covers the parent group if your load mixes sheets, rolls and panels. For reinforced boards that go under machinery or stone, the reinforced honeycomb paperboard pads are built on the same arithmetic but with a thicker facing, and they change both the stack weight and the height per pallet.

Next step: send three numbers — sheet length, sheet width and board thickness — plus the destination port. We will come back with the pallet count, the recommended stack height and the loading pattern for that booking.

Frequently asked questions

How many honeycomb sheets fit in a 40HQ container?
For 1,200 × 1,000 mm sheets in a 1,100 mm stack: 2,200 sheets at 10 mm thick and 220 sheets at 100 mm thick on one level, doubling if a second level is loaded and the stack can carry it. A different sheet size changes the floor count, so treat those as an example rather than a rate card.

Do you load honeycomb sheets on pallets or loose?
Both. Loose loading removes 144 mm of pallet per stack and typically gains around 10% of usable volume, at the cost of slower unloading and no forklift handling at the destination. We build the pattern from the receiving end, not from ours.

Which thicknesses can you supply?
Our sheet and panel pages list 8 mm to 150 mm. In our experience below 8 mm the honeycomb core stops paying for itself and single-wall corrugated does the same job for less, so we will say so if that is what your application needs.

What is the largest sheet that fits through the door?
The example unit above has a 2,340 mm door width and a 2,597 mm door height, so anything wider than 2,340 mm is loaded on edge or split into two pieces. We confirm that in the stacking plan rather than assume it at the booking stage.

What are your sampling and production times?
Seven days for a sample and fifteen days for mass production, counted from the point the drawing and tooling are approved. Quotations are valid for seven days from the date we issue them, and both windows are reference figures we confirm in writing with the order.

What is the minimum order quantity for honeycomb sheets?
It moves with sheet size, core type and whether the sheet is die-cut, so we confirm it per item on the quotation instead of publishing one site-wide figure.

Can honeycomb sheets share a container with cartons?
Yes. Mixed loads are normal on this material, and we work the pallet pattern around the carton footprint first, because cartons are usually the harder thing to re-stack.

Sources

• iContainers, 40ft High Cube Container Dimensions, Capacity and Weight, updated 21 September 2026 (internal dimensions, door opening, 76.3 m³ capacity and 28,600 kg payload example) — checked 24 September 2026.
• Birtleypack, honeycomb cardboard sheet collection, the light-weight kraft honeycomb panel page and the reinforced honeycomb paperboard pad page (thickness range 8–150 mm, kraft board, water-based PVA lamination, fire-retardant grade description) — birtleypack.com, counted and checked 24 September 2026.
• Sample, mass production and quotation validity windows (7 / 15 / 7 days) confirmed with our export team on 22 September 2026.
• Sheet-count arithmetic on this page is our own, computed from the container example above at 1,100 mm stacks on 1,200 × 1,000 mm pallets, and recomputed on 24 September 2026.

Last verified: 24 September 2026, Birtleypack content desk (Xiamen Birtley Industry & Trading Co., Ltd.).