Skip to main content
DEHAM BRSSZ
Automotive

Hamburg to Santos freight CO2 emissions

One tonne of cargo shipped Hamburg (DEHAM) to Santos (BRSSZ) by sea emits 78 kg CO2e well-to-wake at GLEC v3.2 default factors. The same tonne by air emits 5,921.9 kg — roughly 76x the sea number.

Lane noteDeep-water trans-equatorial Atlantic crossing — 14-16 day sailings between Northern Europe and the São Paulo gateway. Eurobrazil headhaul carries strong fertiliser and machinery flows; backhaul is coffee, orange juice, and refrigerated meat.

Per-tonne CO2e by mode

Sea freight

Container ship 3,000-8,000 TEU

78
kg CO2e
Distance
10,400 km
Factor (WTW)
7.5 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 10,400 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 container 8,000-15,000 TEU (Post-Panamax, WTW)

Air freight

Long-haul belly cargo

5,921.9
kg CO2e
Distance
9,740 km
Factor (WTW)
608 g CO2e/tkm
Per shipment
1 t × 9,740 km
Factor source
GLEC v3.2 long-haul belly cargo allocation (WTW)

Mode comparison

On the Hamburg to Santos lane, air freight emits about 76 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 Hamburg to Santos?

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.