Melbourne to Shanghai freight CO2 emissions

Name: EcoFreight Freight Emissions API
Brand: EcoFreight
Availability: InStock

One tonne of cargo shipped Melbourne (AUMEL) to Shanghai (CNSHA) by sea emits 25.2 kg CO₂e well-to-wake at GLEC v3.2 default factors. The same tonne by air emits 4,864 kg — roughly 193x the sea number.

Lane noteBackbone of the Asia-Pacific bulk trade. Capesize iron-ore bulkers running Port Hedland/Dampier-Qingdao dominate by tonnage; the containerised dairy and wool segment shown here is a fraction of total cargo on this corridor.

Per-tonne CO₂e by mode

Sea freight

Container ship 4,000-7,000 TEU + Capesize bulkers

25.2

kg CO₂e

Distance: 8,400 km
Factor (WTW): 3 g CO₂e/tkm
Per shipment: 1 t × 8,400 km
Factor source: GLEC v3.2 Capesize dry bulk carrier (WTW)

Air freight

Long-haul belly cargo

4,864

kg CO₂e

Distance: 8,000 km
Factor (WTW): 608 g CO₂e/tkm
Per shipment: 1 t × 8,000 km
Factor source: GLEC v3.2 long-haul belly cargo allocation (WTW)

Mode comparison

On the Melbourne to Shanghai lane, air freight emits about 193 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 4,000-7,000 TEU + Capesize bulkers (3 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 Melbourne to Shanghai?

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.

Per-tonne CO2e by mode