Shipping

Deadweight Cargo Capacity Calculation

April 17, 2017
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Stephan Küng

The calculation of how much cargo can be loaded on a vessel is

fundamental for hiring one. Sometimes the cargo available is less
than the cubic capacity of the vessel and such calculations are
unnecessary. However, sometimes there are some constraints like
port draft limitation or the cargo to be loaded is too bulky. The vessel
limitation can be in terms of weight as well as in terms of volume
that can be carried. That is why sometimes it is extremely important
knowing of the cargo’s stowage factor which indicates how many
cubic meters of space one metric tonne (or cubic feet of space one
long ton) of a particular type of cargo occupies in a hold of a cargo
ship.

There are situations when the vessel could make a long journey being
necessary to bunker somewhere before arriving at discharge port.
Others when the ship owner or shipper can take advantage of low
cost bunkering during the voyage, thus they load more cargo instead
of fuel and during the voyage there is a stoppage for bunkering.

The Charter Party (CP) is a written, or partly written and partly

printed, contract between a ship owner and a cargo owner/ charterer,
by which a vessel is let or hired for the conveyance of goods on a
specified voyage, or for a defined period. The charterer takes over
the vessel for either a certain amount of time (time charter) or for a
certain point-to-point voyage (voyage charter). There is a subtype
of time charter called demise or bareboat charter. On the CP, we find
abbreviations like:

MOLCO: More or less at charterer’s option. The charterer has the

option to load more or less cargo as per charter party;
MOLOO: More or less at owner’s option. The ship owner has the
option to load more or less cargo as per charter party.

So, if an estimator has to examine various alternatives with the

object of maximum cargo lift, thereby increasing the profitability of
the voyage, then he/she will first have to find out whether and of the
ports of berths intended to be used and almost certainly and properly
included by name in the charter have a draft restriction.

The density of salt water is 1,025 kg/cbm and the density of fresh
water (FW) is 1 kg/cbm. Thus, to displace its weight in salt water
(SW), a vessel will reach a particular draught, but when it transits
into fresh water it needs to displace more water or a greater volume
and therefore it draught increases. Similarly, if it is loading in fresh
water and transits into salt, its draft will decrease. The draft changes
when moving from salt to fresh water and vice versa is known as the
fresh water allowance (FWA) [1].

When a vessel is in a river port close to the sea, the water is

frequently neither fresh nor salt but in between and this is known as
“brackish water”. This term is, however imprecise and could, for
example, mean any gravity between 1,001 and 1,024. Therefore, if
you are told that a port has a brackish water draft restriction, it is
essential to find out what the specific gravity of the water actually
is. Once you have the specific gravity it is an easy matter to calculate
 the additional draft to which a vessel can be loaded and this is known
as the Brackish Water Allowance [1].

Now, before we take a look on the description of the vessel that we

are supposed to hire, the MV "GENEVA", I explain some terms which
are extremely important for understanding the DWCC calculation.

DWT: it is the total weight that a ship can carry which includes
cargo, fuel, stores, freshwater etc. Also, known as DWAT (Dead
Weight All Told).
Draft: Distance between the bottom of the ship (keel) and the water
line.
TPC (Tonnes per centimetre), TPI (Tonnes per inch): Based on
that we find the load line which is maximum depth to which vessel
can be loaded (dependent of water density).
Summer draft: naval term for the worst-case loaded draft a ship
can have. This draft is corrected for the worst-case seasonal
conditions (summer in this case). During summer the water is
warmer, and thus less dense and expands slightly. This makes ships
float deeper in the water.

MV “GENEVA” DESCRIPTION

We’ll calculate our DWCC based on the vessel description and

assuming:
 We are the charterers;
 Our cargo is 45.000mt (± 5% MOLCO) of soybeans;
 Itacoatiara, Brazil, to Samsun, in Turkey;
 Itacoatiara port has 11,5m fresh water (FW) draft limitation;
 Itacoatiara loads @ 4.000mt pday;
 Samsun discharges @ 4.500mt pday.
Does the vessel fit to carry the cargo?

Figure 1: Itacoatiara, Brazil, to Samsun, Turkey. Distance:

6.017 nm. [2]

1. New DWT:
The MV “GENEVA” has DWT 56.838mt and 12,82 m SSW draft.
However, we have draft limitation @ Itacoatiara. So:

(MV Geneva Draft) – (Itacoatiara FW Draft) =

12,82 m – 11,5 m = 1,32 m = 132 cm
Then,

132 cm x (TPC = 58,8mt) = 7.761,60mt

New DWT = 56.838 – 7.761,60 = 49.076,4mt

Unfortunately, this is not correct. As we have seen before, the water

density impacts on the DWT.
 Figure 2: Typical loadlines for a vessel. [2]

When the vessel reaches the sea water it will rise to the summer load
line level. It is important to take advantage of the FWA because there
will be a loss of cargo carried, and therefore a loss of revenue, if the
vessel only loads up to the summer loadline level in freshwater. In
this example, the draft given is for FW. So, our draft limitation is
even worst.

So, we have to re-calculate the draft limitation to SSW:

11,50 ÷ 1,025 = 11,22 m, SSW draft.

The New DWT is 56.838mt – (12,82 m – 11,22 m x 58,8mt/cm) =

47.430mt

2. Time Duration:
Laden: Distance ÷ (Speed x 24h) =
6.017 nm ÷ (14 knots x 24h) = 17,9 days

Loading Port: 45.000mt ÷ 4.000 = 11,25 days

Discharge Port: 45.000mt ÷ 4.500 = 10 days

Total: 39,15 days

 3. Bunkering Consumption:
Laden: 17,9 days x 34mt = 608,6mt IFO
17,9 days x 0,3mt = 5,37mt MDO

Loading Port: 11,25 days x 4,8mt = 54mt IFO

Discharge Port: 10 days x 4,8mt = 48mt IFO

Total ~ 716mt.

We add 5% as a safety margin, then 787,6mt of fuel.

4. New DWCC:
DWT: 47.430mt
 787,6mt Bunkering
 465mt Fresh Water
 400 Constant
The New DWCC is 45.777,4mt

This will be our new DWCC. Stay tuned, soon I’ll add more examples
on MWOC covering different loading situations.

Source:

[1] Tankering Charter Book (2011 - ICS)

[2] AXS Marine platform
[3] http://kids.britannica.com
[4] Concepts learned during the STSA Operator Certificate
Picture: http://market.kpler.com/