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Maritime & Shipping vocabulary · Cargo Handling

Deadweight

Meaning in maritime & shipping, with examples

/ˈdedweɪt/nounCommon term

In maritime & shipping, deadweight means: The total weight a ship can safely carry, including cargo, fuel, fresh water, stores and crew, measured in tonnes. It is usually written DWT.

In Turkish: dedveyt, taşıma kapasitesi, DWT

How it is used

Used to describe a ship's size in chartering and sale and purchase: 'a 58,000 dwt bulk carrier'. Deadweight is a weight, while gross tonnage (GT) measures a ship's internal volume; the two are often confused.

Example sentences

  1. She is a 37,000 deadweight Handysize built in 2015.

  2. The cargo intake is lower than the deadweight because we must keep fuel and water on board.

Common collocations

  • deadweight tonnage
  • summer deadweight
  • deadweight capacity
  • dwt
  • draughtThe vertical distance between the waterline and the lowest point of a ship's keel. It shows how deep the ship sits in the water and changes with cargo and ballast.
  • freeboardThe vertical distance from the waterline up to the main deck at the ship's side. Load line rules set a minimum freeboard to keep the ship safe.
  • bulk carrierA ship built to carry unpacked dry cargo, such as grain, coal, iron ore or fertiliser, loose in its holds.
  • TEUTwenty-foot Equivalent Unit: the standard unit for counting containers and measuring the capacity of container ships and terminals. A 40-foot container counts as two TEU.

More terms: Cargo Handling

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