Suezmax

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Two ships moored at El Ballah during a Suez Canal transit.

Suezmax is a naval architecture term for the largest ships capable of transiting the Suez Canal fully loaded, and is almost exclusively used in reference to tankers. Since the canal has no locks, the only serious limiting factors are draft (maximum depth below waterline), and height due to the Suez Canal Bridge.

The current channel depth of the canal allows for a maximum of 16 m (52.5 ft) of draft, meaning many fully laden supertankers are too deep to fit through, and either have to unload part of their cargo to other ships ('transhipment') or to a pipeline terminal before passing through, or alternatively avoid the Suez Canal and travel around the Cape of Good Hope instead. Currently, the canal is being deepened to 18 to 20 m (59.1 to 65.6 ft).^{[citation needed]}

The typical deadweight of a Suezmax ship is about 150,000 tons and typically has a beam (width) of 46 m (150.9 ft). Also of note is the maximum head room - 'air draft' - limitation of 68 m (223.1 ft), which is the height above water of the Suez Canal Bridge. There is also a width limitation of 70.1 m (230 ft), but only a handful of tankers exceed this size, and they are excluded from Suez by their draft in any case.^{[citation needed]} The canal authority produces tables of width and acceptable draft, which are subject to change.

Suez Canal Bridge or Mubarak Peace Bridge

Improvements are envisaged so that in 2010, the maximum draft will increase to 22 m (72.2 ft), in order to allow supertankers. Until then supertankers must discharge part of their cargo at the entry of the channel and reload it at the other end, transported along the way by pipeline.^{[citation needed]}

Similar terms of Panamax, Malaccamax and Seawaymax are used for the largest ships capable of fitting through the Panama Canal, the Strait of Malacca and Saint Lawrence Seaway, respectively. Aframax tankers are those with a capacity of 80,000 metric tons deadweight (DWT) to 120,000 DWT.

Sources

• Everything2 web site definition of Suezmax

See also

Nautical portal

• Panamax
• Aframax
• Malaccamax
• Capesize

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