Maritime glossary · Lightweight
Lightship
The weight of a vessel with no cargo, fuel, ballast, stores, or crew aboard.
Definition
Lightship, or lightweight, is the displacement of the bare vessel: hull, machinery, and permanent equipment, with no cargo, fuel, water, stores, or crew. It is the baseline from which deadweight is calculated, and it is the figure that matters most when a ship is sold for recycling, because demolition is priced per tonne of lightship steel (quoted as USD per LDT, light displacement tonne).
Worked example
A Capesize bulker sold to a recycling yard at USD 500 per LDT against a 20,000 LDT lightship is worth roughly USD 10 million as scrap steel.
How Vessel Hunter uses Lightship
Lightship in light displacement tonnes is the number recyclers and cash buyers run on. Vessel Hunter surfaces it on candidates heading for the beach.
Related terms
- Displacement
The actual weight of a vessel, equal to the weight of water it displaces, measured in tonnes.
- DWTDeadweight Tonnage
The maximum weight in tonnes a vessel can carry (cargo, fuel, ballast, crew, stores) without exceeding its load line.
- Ship RecyclingDemolition
The dismantling of an end-of-life vessel to recover steel and equipment, also called demolition or scrapping.
The bigger picture
Lightship is one piece of the commercial maritime picture Vessel Hunter pulls together for shipyards, suppliers, service providers, and port agents. Every vessel record bundles AIS, ownership, inspections, dry-dock history, casualty record, classification status, and a verified contact for the operator decision-maker behind the ship, so the team that reaches out first wins the work.
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