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ZADUR NGAPP
Refined products

Durban to Lagos freight CO2 emissions

One tonne of cargo shipped Durban (ZADUR) to Lagos (NGAPP) by sea emits 49.5 kg CO2e well-to-wake at GLEC v3.2 default factors. The same tonne by air emits 2,729.9 kg — roughly 55x the sea number.

Lane noteAfrica intra trunk around the Cape of Good Hope — 10-12 day sailings between the continent's two largest container gateways. Intra-African containerised trade remains thin relative to Asia/Europe flows; most cargo here is South African industry into Nigeria.

Per-tonne CO2e by mode

Sea freight

Container ship 3,000-8,000 TEU

49.5
kg CO2e
Distance
6,600 km
Factor (WTW)
7.5 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 6,600 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 container 8,000-15,000 TEU (Post-Panamax, WTW)

Air freight

Long-haul belly cargo

2,729.9
kg CO2e
Distance
4,490 km
Factor (WTW)
608 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 4,490 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 long-haul belly cargo allocation (WTW)

Mode comparison

On the Durban to Lagos lane, air freight emits about 55 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 Durban to Lagos?

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.