stowage factor

Stowage factors for several types of cargo are presented in the following table.

The cargo's density, also known as its stowage factor, is the key factor.

The stowage factor also depends on the type of packaging, being the lowest for unpackaged bulk cargo.

The stowage factor can be used in ship design and as a reference to evaluate the efficiency of use of the cargo space on a ship.

While most commonly used for dry bulk cargo, a stowage factor can also be calculated for liquid bulk cargo and other commodities such as containers or cars.

In shipping, the stowage factor indicates how many cubic metres of space one metric tonne (or cubic feet of space one long ton) of a particular type of cargo occupies in a hold of a cargo ship.

Thus the stowage factor is taken into account in ship design when determining the size of cargo holds, and specialized ships such as ore carriers and car carriers are built for cargoes with a stowage factor that departs significantly from the average.

The second series was also originally designed with higher coamings all around to increase capacity for cargo with low stowage factor, such as coal, but restrictions placed by the cargo handling equipment of the ports resulted in a compromise with lower coamings forward of the side ramps and higher towards the aft.