01 · 6 batches
Oil refinery
24 Crude oil 12 Fuel + 6 Fertilizer + 24 Chemicals
Production chains · raw material demand · surplus cargo
Production chain & freight planner
Start with a target product, calculate its materials and co-products, then size each delivery leg with your measured trip times and capacities.
Your scenario
Counts production batches, not factories or annual capacity. Ratios follow the official manual checked on 11 October 2026.
Planned finished cargo
Clothes
12units
Raw materials to supply
- Wool
- 16 units
- Crude oil
- 24 units
Surplus & by-products
- Clothes
- 2 units
- Plastic
- 20 units
- Fuel
- 12 units
- Fertilizer
- 6 units
Theoretical calculation
Plan transport for the whole production chain
Set a target quantity over one measured period. Each material delivery to each consuming industry gets its own route assumptions, fleet requirement and stock buffer.
The recipe ratios are sourced from the official manual. Period, trip times, capacities, loading percentages, fleet sizes and pickup gaps below are editable example assumptions, not measured TF3 vehicle data. Minutes must use the same clock throughout; no game-year conversion is assumed.
Calculation method & limits
For each input: quantity = recipe input × whole batches; final delivery = requested target. Rate = quantity / period. Usable load = capacity × load% / 100. Vehicles = ceiling(rate × round-trip / usable load). Current capacity per period = fleet × usable load × period / round-trip. Buffer = ceiling(rate × no-pickup interval + one nominal vehicle load).
Each row assumes a dedicated single-cargo route to its named consumer. Split routes with several pickups, shared vehicles or multiple transfer hops into separate measured plans. Buffers are per-cargo planning scenarios, not counts of warehouse modules. Surplus co-products have no modeled delivery route. Factory speed, demand, route access, traffic and storage compatibility can still prevent the target; climate warnings above remain applicable.
Worked example: 10 furniture per 60 minutes requires 5 furniture batches, 20 planks and 5 glass. For the 20-plank leg, a 24-minute round trip, capacity 40 and 80% loading need 1 vehicle (80 units per period). A 15-minute pickup gap plus one nominal load gives a 45-unit buffer. These are illustrative calculations, not a playtest.
Production stages
02 · 4 batches
Chemical plant
24 Chemicals 8 Dyes + 20 Plastic
03 · 4 batches
Weaving mill
16 Wool 16 Fabric
04 · 4 batches
Textile factory
16 Fabric + 8 Dyes 12 Clothes
Calculation method & limits
Downstream demands are combined before whole recipe batches are calculated. Climate selection checks the required standard factories. Automatic wool selection uses a cotton farm in temperate or tropical climates and livestock elsewhere; livestock converts 7 grain into 4 wool and 3 meat per batch. You can select the source explicitly. These are recipe quantities, not production times or factory counts; check your save economy and mods.
Trace materials with a Transport Fever 3 production chain planner
The Transport Fever 3 production chain planner starts with a finished product and works backward through its recipe requirements. Choose the product and desired units, then inspect raw inputs, production batches and surplus outputs. A factory that produces several cargos can cover more than one downstream requirement, so shared branches are combined before its batch count is calculated. The production chain planner uses the documented recipe quantities, not an assumed production speed. Compare every required industry with the climate and economy of your save before turning the material plan into a transport network.
How to use this Transport Fever 3 calculator
- Choose the finished cargo and enter a required quantity. This is a batch-quantity request, not a claim about units per game year. Keep a transport rate calculation separate from recipe arithmetic. Choose the map climate and wool source; an unavailable-industry message means the material plan cannot be built with that standard climate alone.
- Read the raw materials and surplus alongside the stage list. The Transport Fever 3 production chain planner rounds each factory's required batches up, so the delivered product can exceed your requested quantity.
- Check the selected industry's recipe in your save and identify the required input and output routes. Use the cargo line planner to compare transport legs and the warehouse planner to buffer surplus rather than assuming every material arrives instantly.
A worked planning example
For 20 clothes, the textile factory needs seven batches and produces 21 clothes. That requires 28 fabric and 14 dyes. Weaving needs 28 wool. Chemical production needs 42 chemicals; eleven oil-refinery batches supply 44 chemicals from 44 crude oil. The recipe plan also produces fuel, fertilizer and plastic alongside one extra clothes unit. The quantity plan says nothing by itself about how many minutes or factories are required. In subarctic climate, automatic wool selection instead uses seven livestock batches: 49 grain produces 28 wool and 21 meat.
What to do with the result
The production chain planner exposes material dependencies and rounding surplus. It does not guarantee that every industry exists on the chosen climate, that a destination accepts the cargo or that transport meets deadlines. Confirm those constraints in the save. Use the delivery-time calculator for a shipment's journey and station throughput for terminal workload. Transport Fever 3 production chains connect factories, while profitable cargo transport still needs compatible vehicles and complete acceptance routes.
Calculator questions
Does this Transport Fever 3 production chain planner calculate factory counts?
It calculates recipe batches and quantities. A factory count also requires an observed production rate and timeframe, which are not inferred from the recipe table.
Why do I receive surplus products?
Whole production batches may produce more than the exact request, and some factories create several outputs together. The planner combines common downstream requirements before counting a shared factory and lists the remaining surplus.