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How does MarineTraffic categorise Commercial Market and Commercial Size Class?
How does MarineTraffic categorise Commercial Market and Commercial Size Class?
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Written by Vasilis Kontas
Updated over 5 months ago

MarineTraffic is able to define vessels by type according to:

  • the information they transmit via their AIS transponders

  • the information stored in our comprehensive maritime database.

Using those 2 sources, we can separate them into different Commercial Markets. Although specifying the exact definition of each Commercial Market and it's most important components is not an easy task, the following table shows the Markets that MarineTraffic uses in a number of services:

COMMERCIAL MARKETS

CONTAINER SHIPS

DRY BREAKBULK

DRY BULK

LNG CARRIERS

LPG CARRIERS

WET BULK

PASSENGER SHIPS

OFFSHORE/RIGS

RO/RO

SUPPORTING VESSELS

PLEASURE CRAFT

FISHING

OTHER MARKETS

Furthermore, larger vessels, such as freighters and tankers, can be further categorised into Commercial Size Classes based on their means of measuring their size. This information has been gathered in our database and it's solely responsible for this categorisation.

Consequently, the categorisation is not universal. You may come across slightly different size-ranges per Category. The size-ranges, as mentioned in the table below, are used by MarineTraffic to further categorise the recorded vessels in its database. An example of putting such information to use is the Port Congestion charts, that can be found in the Ports' Detail Page, or the Data Exploration Tool, where various options have a filter for Commercial Market and Commercial Size Class. Additionally, they can be used as input parameters of the Port congestion API service.

MarineTraffic makes use of such information, as follows:

VESSEL TYPE

SIZE CATEGORY

SIZE (in TEU)

CONTAINER SHIPS

SMALL FEEDER

0 – 999

CONTAINER SHIPS

FEEDER

1,000 – 1,999

CONTAINER SHIPS

FEEDERMAX

2,000 – 2,999

CONTAINER SHIPS

PANAMAX

3,000 - 5,099

CONTAINER SHIPS

POST PANAMAX

5,100 – 9,999

CONTAINER SHIPS

NEW PANAMAX

10,000 – 14,499

CONTAINER SHIPS

ULCV

≥ 14,500

VESSEL TYPE

SIZE CATEGORY

SIZE (in DWT)

DRY BREAKBULK

HANDYSIZE

0 - 39,999

DRY BREAKBULK

HANDYMAX

40,000 - 59,999

DRY BREAKBULK

PANAMAX

60,000 - 79,999

DRY BREAKBULK

POST PANAMAX

80,000 - 119,999

DRY BREAKBULK

CAPESIZE

120,000 - 199,999

DRY BREAKBULK

VLBC/ULBC

≥ 200,000

DRY BULK

HANDYSIZE

0 - 39,999

DRY BULK

HANDYMAX

40,000 - 59,999

DRY BULK

PANAMAX

60,000 - 79,999

DRY BULK

POST PANAMAX

80,000 - 119,999

DRY BULK

CAPESIZE

120,000 - 199,999

DRY BULK

VLBC/ULBC

≥ 200,000

WET BULK

HANDYSIZE

0 - 39,999

WET BULK

HANDYMAX/MR

40,000 - 59,999

WET BULK

PANAMAX/LR1

60,000 - 79,999

WET BULK

AFRAMAX/LR2

80,000 - 119,999

WET BULK

SUEZMAX

120,000 - 199,999

WET BULK

VLCC/ULCC

≥ 200,000

VESSEL TYPE

SIZE CATEGORY

SIZE (in Liquid Gas)

LNG CARRIERS

SNGC

0 - 59,999

LNG CARRIERS

HNGC

60,000 - 99,999

LNG CARRIERS

MNGC

100,000 - 139,999

LNG CARRIERS

LNGC

140,000 - 199,999

LNG CARRIERS

VLNGC

≥ 200,000

LPG CARRIERS

SGC

0 - 14,999

LPG CARRIERS

HGC

15,000 - 24,999

LPG CARRIERS

MGC

25,000 - 49,999

LPG CARRIERS

LGC

50,000 - 60,999

LPG CARRIERS

VLGC

≥ 61,000

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