Containers, bulk carriers and tankers

THREE main categories of merchant ships exist today.

Bulk carriers convey unpacked commodities and are typically built to convey "wet" products such as oil or chemicals, or "dry" bulk such as grains or ore.

Bulk carriers are often identified by shorthand names ending with the suffix "-max". Examples include Panamaxes or Suezmaxes. These merely describe the size of the bulk carriers as some ports like the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal require ships to conform to certain dimensions in order to pass through these channels.