• centner (abbreviated as CWT) is a standard unit of weight or mass used in some commodity markets. It can also be used to determine the price of small batches of goods.

  • In North America, a centner is equal to 100 pounds; in the United Kingdom, a hundredweight is 112 pounds. They can be called “short” or “long” centners.
  • Initially, the centner was introduced as a standard unit of measure to facilitate trade in certain goods between countries.
  • The use of the centner as a measure has declined in recent years in favor of the metric system.
  • Steel, cattle, oil, seeds and grains are examples of products measured in quintals.