How much does it cost to ship iron ore from Brazil to China?

For a Capesize carrying ~171,000 t from Tubarão to Qingdao (~11,067 nm), an indicative all-in cost is roughly US$12 per tonne, covering bunkers, port disbursements and vessel hire over about 39 days. Exact figures move daily with bunker prices and the hire market.

What drives dry bulk freight rates?

Freight rates are driven by the balance of cargo demand and available vessels, the distance of the voyage, bunker fuel prices and vessel hire levels. The Baltic Dry Index tracks the overall direction of dry bulk rates.

Freight Cost Calculator — Cost to Ship Dry Bulk (US$/tonne)

Estimate the cost to ship dry bulk cargo — iron ore, coal, grain — in US$ per tonne and as a total voyage cost. Pick a route and vessel, adjust bunker price and hire to today's market, and see the full breakdown. Indicative estimates, not firm quotes.

What this estimates

This tool estimates the all-in cost to move a bulk cargo on a single voyage: bunker fuel, port disbursements and vessel hire over the voyage days, divided by the cargo to give a cost per tonne. It's the number a shipper or trader wants when asking "what will it cost to get this cargo from A to B?" — built from independent inputs, not from any proprietary published freight rate.

How the cost is built

Voyage days = sea days (distance ÷ speed) + load + discharge days.
Bunker cost = fuel burn at speed × bunker price, plus port consumption.
Hire cost = daily hire × voyage days.
Total cost = bunkers + port disbursements + hire (+ canal). Cost per tonne = total ÷ cargo.

Example: cost to ship iron ore Brazil → China

A Capesize carrying ~171,000 t from Tubarão to Qingdao (~11,067 nm), with bunkers at $600/t and representative hire, comes out around $12 per tonne all-in, or roughly $2.0m for the voyage, over about 39 days. Because hire and bunker prices move daily, enter today's numbers to sharpen the estimate.

Common dry bulk routes

The calculator includes reference distances for major corridors — iron ore (Dampier/Tubarão → Qingdao), coal (Newcastle → Qingdao, Richards Bay → Rotterdam) and grain (US Gulf/Santos → Qingdao). For any other pair, type the distance in nautical miles. Track the overall direction of rates on the live Baltic Dry Index.

Freight cost in your own app or agent?

Call GET /v1/freight-estimate for machine-readable $/tonne and total cost, or see all endpoints on the API page.

Freight Cost Calculator

What this estimates

How the cost is built

Example: cost to ship iron ore Brazil → China

Common dry bulk routes

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