

The expansion of the Panama Canal by making new locks have given birth to a new class of ships called New Panamax vessels. Those ships which do not fall under the dimension criteria of Panama’s vessel are known as Post-Panamax Vessels. The sizes of Panamax ships are determined by considering the dimensions of the smallest lock of the canal. The ship classification indicates the minimum dimensions required by the ship to be able to pass smoothly through the Panama Canal. Panamax and New Panamax are terms used for ships that are designed to travel through the Panama Canal. Considering the above-mentioned factors, the ships are classified into the following categories on the basis of their size:

Ship sizes chiefly vary on their load-carrying capacitance, just as their variance alters on the constructional capacitance of the various ports and harbours. for designing a ship that would be able to pass through the Suez Canal, the dimensions of the ship would be decided in such a way that the ship is able to smoothly transit through the narrowest and shallowest areas of the canal, in both fully loading and unloading conditions. are taken into consideration while designing and constructing a merchant ship. The ship’s dimensions play an important part in determining the areas of operation of any type of the merchant vessel.Ī variety of parameters such as draft, beam, length overall, gross tonnage, deadweight tonnage etc. The classification of the ship is decided right at the design stage on the basis of the route of operation and the purpose of the ship. Merchant ships are broadly classified on the basis of their sizes and areas of operation.
