Ton-Mile: Meaning in Shipping
A ton-mile is the work of carrying one tonne of cargo over one nautical mile. It measures the real demand for ships better than the weight of cargo alone.
What it is
Take the weight of a cargo in tonnes and multiply it by the distance it is carried in nautical miles. The result is the ton-miles of that voyage. A cargo of 50,000 tonnes carried 4,000 nautical miles is 200 million ton-miles. Added together for all cargoes in a year, the figure shows how much transport work the world fleet has to do.
Why distance matters
Ships are a limited supply. A cargo that goes twice as far keeps a ship busy for twice as long, so the same weight needs more ship capacity. When a trade route becomes longer, for example because a canal is closed or a buyer takes cargo from a more distant supplier, the ton-miles rise, and so does the demand for ships even if the weight does not change.
Examples
If a buyer changes from a supplier in the same region to one on another continent, the cargo is the same but the ton-miles increase many times. A rerouting around a continent instead of through a canal adds days to every voyage. This lifts demand in the freight market as ships are tied up longer.
How it is used
Analysts and brokers compare the growth of ton-miles with the growth of the fleet. If ton-miles grow faster than the fleet, ships are in short supply and freight tends to rise. If the fleet grows faster, there are more ships than cargo and the pressure goes the other way. This is a way to read the market, not a promise of what will happen.
For a charterer or a ship operator
You do not need to compute it for a single voyage. It helps to understand why a long trade route is a different market from a short one, even with the same cargo. For the types of ship see the bulk carrier and deadweight tonnage.
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- Notice of Readiness
- Charterer
- Shipowner, ship operator, disponent owner
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- Bill of lading
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- FIO and FIOS
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- Statement of facts
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