General load factors for ships are hard to find. Here we rely on load factors published by IMO. Although the origin of these values is unclear we choose to use them until more reliable figures are available. Table 3 gives the average load capacity utilization, LCU, for different types of ships.

Load capacity utilisation (IMO 2^nd GHG study

In order to calculate mass the IMO study uses 7 tonnes per container, 2 tonnes per lanemetre and 1.5 tonnes per car equivalent unit (CEU). Note that for containers one should also consider the utilisation of the actual container (not included in the value in above table).