Shipping Container Prices: New and Used Price List for Ontario

Reading time: about 14 minutes. Price list approved by Paul LeBlanc, owner, on October 7, 2026.

20ft Shipping Container Prices

A 20ft shipping container is the 20 foot ISO steel box that homeowners, farms and trades buy for storage. Across our 4 Brantford yards, it is the size Van Blanc sells most often. Van Blanc has sold containers since 1995, and in October 2026 Paul LeBlanc, the owner, approved the figures below for publication. Every price is the container alone, before HST, with delivery quoted on top for your address. The full specification of the standard box sits on our 20 foot dry container page, with interior measurements and door size.

Used 20ft units carry a range instead of a single figure, because two used boxes of the same length are never the same box. The range is shown exactly as Paul set it: depending on quality. Where a particular used unit sits inside that range comes down to the box itself, so the price you pay belongs to the container number you pick. A checklist for judging a used box before you pay helps with that choice. New 20ft units each carry one fixed price per door layout, and the standard new 20ft has a second price for a colour other than beige. For the condition a new box arrives in, new one-trip containers and what they arrive with walks through delivery day.

Read the table from the top down. The used 20ft is the entry point, and a new 20ft in the default beige comes next. The tri door sits above it, and the high cube and the double door share the next price. The open side layouts sit at the top of the 20ft list, with the high cube full open side highest of all. Past the colour choice, each step up buys more height or more of the box that opens.

40ft Shipping Container Prices

The 40ft list splits the same way. Used 40s come in two heights, the standard box and the high cube, and both sit in the same price range on Paul’s list, depending on quality. Every new 40ft with a posted price is a high cube. The new 40ft at standard height is sold too, and for that one you call for a quote. The plain cargo door box starts the new lines, and the double door and side door layouts climb to the full open side. For the specifications behind the plain new box, see the 40ft high cube dry container page.

A used 40ft standard and a used 40ft high cube landing in the same range surprises some buyers. The chart of every container size shows how close the two boxes are. Most international shipping has moved to high cubes, so the taller box is plentiful in the used rows, and the list prices both heights in one range. On the new side the plain high cube is the base. The open side units carry the steel and hardware that a full length of doors needs. If you are torn between two lines in the table, describe the job on a call at 519-754-6844 and we will match the unit to it.

Sizes Quoted by Phone

Van Blanc sells more than the 20ft and 40ft boxes on the list, and the units below have no posted figure yet. Small boxes for tight lots are grouped on our small shipping containers page. Several are sourced to order, some are cut or built from a larger box, and the reefers carry a refrigeration unit whose condition moves the number. For every one of them the answer is the same: call for a quote, and we will give you a real figure for a real unit.

Calling Van Blanc is quicker than it sounds. Tell us the size, the job and your postal code. Whoever picks up at the yard can usually tell you on the spot what is in the rows and what it costs. Modifications and add-ons such as man doors, windows, vents, insulation and roll-up doors are priced separately as well. Our custom container modifications done at the yard page lists what Van Blanc builds before delivery.

Listed Price: What It Covers

Each figure on this page is the price of the steel box you pick, and nothing is folded into it. HST is added on top: the Canada Revenue Agency sets the harmonized sales tax at 13% for a sale where the place of supply is Ontario. Delivery is a separate line, worked out for your address, and any modification is quoted on its own. Keeping the three apart means you can see what the container costs, what the trip costs and what the tax adds before anything is paid. No additional costs sit hidden inside the box price.

A walk through the rows is the surest way to judge a used unit against its price. Our main office and public yard is at 90 Morton Avenue East in Brantford, open Monday to Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with no appointment needed. Visitors check the doors, the floor and the paint, then point at the box they want on the truck. Buyers further away get the same walk over video.

Container Colours and RAL Codes

Paint colour is one of the few choices on a new container that changes the price, so the options are listed here with their RAL numbers. RAL is the European colour reference that paint shops and container makers quote. With the code in hand, you can match a fence, a building or a company colour before you order. A used box can be brought to any colour later with a marine epoxy repaint. Beige is the default on the list. The three greys are the other standard choices.

Colour note: For a colour outside these four, contact us with a special request. The standard new 20ft has its own listed price in a non-beige colour. For any other new unit in a grey, ask when you request your quote.

Used containers come in whatever colour their last owner painted them. That is why used containers sold by grade stand in the rows in reds, blues, tans and greens. The 20ft table above shows the non-beige price for the standard new 20ft. Any colour outside the four on this list is a special request, so call and describe what you need.

Container Door Layouts

Most of the new lines on the price list differ by how the box opens. The door layout is what moves a new container up the table. The standard box has cargo doors at one end. Everything above it adds doors somewhere else, and each added opening means extra steel framing, hinges and seals built in at the factory.

A double door container has full cargo doors at both ends, so a load passes straight through. The trade calls it a tunnel container, and our guide to the tunnel layout covers who buys one and why. An open side container replaces one long wall with bi-fold doors, so a forklift reaches every pallet and a pop-up shop opens its whole front. The full open side lines at the top of each size’s list open that entire long wall.

The tri door and the numbered side door units keep the names they carry on Paul’s price list. The 40ft list has 2x, 3x and 4x side doors, and the 20ft has 2x and XL. Ask for photos of the exact unit before you buy to see its door layout, and we will send them. The open side container page has the specifications for the factory open side units.

High Cube or Standard Height

A high cube is a container one foot taller than the standard box: 9 ft 6 in on the outside instead of 8 ft 6 in. CN Intermodal’s 40 foot equipment sheet puts the usable cube of a 40ft standard at 2,395 cu. ft. and the high cube at 2,689 cu. ft., so the taller box holds about 12% more. Both carry 20 pallets on the same sheet, so the extra space is headroom.

On the new side of the price list, the 20ft high cube sits above the standard new 20ft. On the used side, the 40ft high cube and the 40ft standard share one range. Shelving, a workshop or anything people will stand inside is where the extra foot pays its way. For the shorter length, the 20ft high cube against the standard box lays out the trade-offs. For the 40ft decision, comparing the two 40ft heights walks through it use by use.

Grades Behind New and Used Prices

The word on the table, new or used, stands for a grade, and four grades cover every container in the trade. New means one-trip: a box built overseas that made exactly one loaded voyage to get here. Used covers the three grades below it. Each grade is a different product with a different job, and the plain-language guide to container grades goes deeper than this summary.

Cargo Worthy matters if the box may go to sea again. Under the 1972 Convention for Safe Containers, a container in international transport carries a Safety Approval Plate. The International Maritime Organization notes re-examinations at intervals of up to 30 months. Wind and Watertight is the grade most buyers choose for a used box that stays put on a pad. As-Is units suit buyers with a set use in mind, such as a modification donor or cladding.

Delivery Priced by Distance

Van Blanc prices delivery by the distance from the yard or depot where your unit is stocked to where it lands. Send your postal code by phone or form, and we work out that distance. Delivery is then quoted with your order, as its own line beside the container price. Delivery runs on a tilt-deck with a fully insured carrier, and most of Ontario gets its container within 1 to 3 days of the order. Every quote comes with the lead time for your address.

Payment for delivery follows the same rule as the box: you pay on delivery, once the container is on your ground. Site access is the other half of a smooth drop. A tilt-deck needs a straight path at least 12 ft wide and at least 14 ft of clear height overhead. Approach length and turning room are in the delivery space guide. If the pad is not ready yet, preparing the ground for a container explains gravel, blocks and drainage.

Delivery day itself is short. The driver calls before the run, backs the trailer to the spot you marked, tilts the deck and eases the container down as the truck pulls forward. You check the unit and pay. How a tilt-deck drop works shows each step if you want to picture it before the truck arrives.

Paying on Delivery

Van Blanc takes payment when the container is on your site, never before. The accepted methods are listed on our contact page: draft cheque, cash, wire transfer, or a credit card through our Credit Card Authorization Form. We do not take e-transfer. A seller who insists on an e-transfer for a unit you have never seen is one of the red flags our scam guides list. Our listing scam checker tests an outside listing before you send money anywhere.

Van Blanc sells containers outright. We do not rent, lease or offer rent-to-own. Buyers who want to spread the cost can arrange an equipment loan or line of credit through their own bank or equipment financer. Van Blanc supplies the invoice, grade and serial number the lender asks for. Cash against financing on a container compares the two routes in plain numbers.

Sea Can Prices and the Market

Sea can prices and shipping container prices are the same prices, because a sea can is the Canadian name for the same ISO steel box. What moves them is global: steel at the factory, the Canadian dollar against the US dollar the boxes are bought in, ocean freight, and the season. Spring building season firms demand, and the colder months are usually quieter, which buying in winter against summer works through month by month.

The list on this page carries the date it was approved, October 7, 2026. Our guide to what drives container cost in Canada takes the price apart layer by layer, from factory steel to the last kilometre. The Ontario grade ladder is the short version for buyers deciding between grades.

Price List to Delivered Container

Ordering from the Van Blanc price list takes four steps, and the price on the page stays the anchor through all of them.

1. Find your line. Pick the size, the new or used grade, the door layout and the colour from the tables above.
2. Send the size and postal code. Call 519-754-6844 or use the quote request form. We confirm what is in the rows and add delivery for your address.
3. See your unit. Walk the rows at 90 Morton Avenue East or take the video call, and pick the container number that goes on the truck.
4. Pay on delivery. The tilt-deck sets the box where you marked, usually within 1 to 3 days, and you pay once it is down.

If you are still choosing between sizes and styles, the full range lives on every container we have for sale, card by card. A price far below this list from a seller with no yard address should make you stop before you pay anything.

Walk the Rows at Morton Avenue

We have been supplying shipping containers across Ontario since 1995. Our main office and public yard is at 90 Morton Avenue East in Brantford, and every container on this list is sold outright and paid for on delivery.

Van Blanc Ent. Inc., 90 Morton Ave. East, Unit 1-B, Brantford, ON N3R 7J7, 519-754-6844

Bring the table up on your phone when you visit and point at the line you want. We will walk you to the boxes that match it.

Related Reading

• What a one-trip container’s premium pays for
• Container scams and how to spot them
• Financing a container in Ontario
• Ontario communities we deliver to