Suezmax

Suezmax, like Panamax, is a ship-size category defined by a canal — in this case the Suez Canal, the vital waterway linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea that shortens the voyage between Europe and Asia by avoiding the long route around Africa. A Suezmax tanker is the largest that can transit the canal fully laden, its size limited chiefly by the depth of water the canal allows and its beam, giving a vessel of roughly 120,000 to 200,000 tonnes deadweight. The category applies principally to crude oil tankers, which are the main users of the canal among large ships.

The Suezmax sits in the tanker size ladder between the smaller Aframax and the much larger Very Large Crude Carrier. Whereas a VLCC is generally too large to pass through the Suez Canal with a full cargo of crude, a Suezmax is purpose-sized to make that transit, which gives it flexibility on the important routes between the Middle East, the Mediterranean, West Africa, Europe and the Americas. This ability to use the canal loaded is a key part of the Suezmax's commercial value, allowing it to serve trades where a larger ship could not take the direct route.

The Suez Canal Authority periodically deepens and widens the canal, so the exact maximum dimensions have changed over time and continue to evolve, which is why the Suezmax is defined by the canal's current capability rather than by a single fixed figure. The tanker size classes (Aframax, Suezmax, VLCC and the smaller product-tanker sizes) form the everyday language of the crude and product trades, and brokers, owners and analysts describe the tanker market in these terms. The Suezmax remains one of the core crude-carrying classes, its fortunes tied to the pattern of oil trade and to the freight rates on the routes it serves.