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. Naval architecture is an engineering discipline dealing with the design construction and repair of marine vehicles The Suez Canal is a Canal in Egypt. Opened in 1869 it allows Water transportation between Europe and Asia without circumnavigation History The technology of oil transportation has evolved alongside the oil industry Since the canal has no locks, the only serious limiting factor is draft (maximum depth below waterline). The draft (or draught) of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the Waterline and the bottom of the hull ( Keel) with the thickness

The current channel depth of the canal allows for a maximum of 16 m (53 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. History The technology of oil transportation has evolved alongside the oil industry The Cape of Good Hope ( Afrikaans: Kaap die Goeie Hoop, Kaap de Goede Hoop Cabo da Boa Esperança Persian Language: دماغه امید نیک Currently, the canal is being deepened to 18–20 m.

The typical deadweight of a Suezmax ship is about 150,000 tons and typically has a beam (width) of 46 m (151 ft). Tonnage is a measure of the size or Cargo capacity of a Ship. Also of note is the maximum head room - 'air draft' - limitation of 68 meters, which is the height above water of the Suez Canal Bridge. Air draft is the distance from the water line to the highest point on the vessel The Suez Canal Bridge, also known as the Mubarak Peace Bridge or the Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge, is a road bridge crossing the Suez Canal There is also a width limitation of 70. 1 meters (230 ft), but only a handful of tankers exceed this size, and they are excluded from Suez by their draft in any case. 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, in order to allow supertankers. At the moment, 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.

Similar terms of Panamax, Malaccamax and Seawaymax are used for the largest ships capable of fitting through the Panama Canal, the Straits of Malacca and Saint Lawrence Seaway, respectively. " Panamax " ships are of the maximum dimensions that will fit through the locks of the Panama Canal. Malaccamax is a Naval architecture term for the largest size of ship capable of fitting through the -deep Strait of Malacca. term Seawaymax refers to vessels which are the maximum size that can fit through the Canal locks of the St The Panama Canal is a man-made Canal in Panama which joins the The Strait of Malacca is a narrow 805 km (500 mile stretch of water between Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia) and the Indonesian island of Sumatra The St Lawrence Seaway is the common name for a system of Canals that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes Aframax tankers are those with a capacity of 80,000 metric tons of deadweight (DWT) to 120,000 DWT. An Aframax ship is an oil tanker with capacity between and. Aframax class tankers are largely used in the basins of the Black Sea, the North Sea, the Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight and variously abbreviated as DWT, D