Light Displacement Tonnage
LDT as the weight of the empty ship, why the recycling market prices on it rather than deadweight, and the long ton against metric tonne problem.
Light displacement tonnage, or LDT, is the weight of a ship in light condition: her hull, structure, machinery, equipment and fittings, with no cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast, stores, passengers or crew aboard. It is a fixed physical property of the vessel and the closest available proxy for the weight of recoverable steel, which is why the recycling market quotes prices per LDT rather than per deadweight ton.
The distinction from deadweight matters commercially. Deadweight measures what a ship can carry and drives her earning capacity; LDT measures what she is made of and drives her demolition proceeds. A geared handysize and a gearless one of the same deadweight can carry very different light weights.
One trap catches buyers and sellers alike: the unit. Sources differ between long tons of 2,240 lb and metric tonnes, a difference of about 1.6%. On a 20,000 LDT hull that is worth six figures, so the sale contract has to state which unit it means.
The full article will cover how LDT is derived from the ship’s lightship weight and stability documentation, its relationship to displacement and to the tonnage measurement conventions, typical LDT bands by ship type, and its use in demolition pricing under ship finance and asset valuation .