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BEANR ZACPT
Machinery

Antwerp to Cape Town freight CO2 emissions

One tonne of cargo shipped Antwerp (BEANR) to Cape Town (ZACPT) by sea emits 84 kg CO2e well-to-wake at GLEC v3.2 default factors. The same tonne by air emits 5,727.4 kg — roughly 68x the sea number.

Lane noteNorthern Europe to the Cape via West African coast — 16-18 day sailings. Cape Town Container Terminal is wind-exposed and frequently shuts on south-easterly gusts; the backhaul carries deciduous fruit, wine, and Western Cape citrus.

Per-tonne CO2e by mode

Sea freight

Container ship 3,000-8,000 TEU

84
kg CO2e
Distance
11,200 km
Factor (WTW)
7.5 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 11,200 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 container 8,000-15,000 TEU (Post-Panamax, WTW)

Air freight

Long-haul belly cargo

5,727.4
kg CO2e
Distance
9,420 km
Factor (WTW)
608 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 9,420 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 long-haul belly cargo allocation (WTW)

Mode comparison

On the Antwerp to Cape Town lane, air freight emits about 68 times more CO2e per tonne than sea freight at GLEC v3.2 defaults. The gap is driven by the WTW factor difference between long-haul belly cargo (608 g CO2e/tkm) and a Container ship 3,000-8,000 TEU (7.5 g CO2e/tkm), partly offset by the shorter great-circle air routing.

Try this in the calculator

These numbers are GLEC v3.2 defaults at 1 tonne. Change weight, vessel class, or load factor in the calculator and see the per-mode CO2e update under ISO 14083:2023 data quality tiers.

Methodology references

Need primary-data emissions for Antwerp to Cape Town?

The EcoFreight API ingests AIS, bunker delivery notes, and shipment manifests to return ISO 14083 Tier 3 primary-data numbers for the same lane. Free tier covers 1,000 calculations per month.