Suezmax
The tanker class sized to transit the Suez Canal fully laden, its deadweight band, beam and draft, and how the limits have moved.
Suezmax is the tanker class defined by the largest vessel that can transit the Suez Canal fully laden. Unlike Panamax, which is fixed by a lock chamber, the Suezmax envelope is set by a dredged channel and by the Suez Canal Authority beam-versus-draft tables, so the class definition has moved upward with each deepening programme rather than staying fixed for decades.
The class sits between Aframax and VLCC, typically in the 120,000 to 200,000 dwt range, and it is the largest crude carrier that routinely uses the canal laden. A VLCC on the same route either transits in ballast, lightens its cargo into the SUMED pipeline, or rounds the Cape of Good Hope.
The full article will cover the deadweight, beam and laden draft band, the beam-versus-draft trade that governs it, how each Suez Canal deepening changed the definition, the trades the class serves, and the freight-market conventions that quote it.