Bulk Carrier
A Bulk Carrier (or bulker) is a merchant ship purpose-built to carry unpackaged dry bulk cargo — grain, coal, iron ore, bauxite, cement, fertiliser — in large open holds. Its distinctive design features box-shaped holds with wide hatches for easy loading and discharge by grabs, conveyors or spouts, and a self-trimming hull form. Dedicated tankers perform the equivalent role for liquid bulk.
Bulk carriers are described by size classes tied to trade and waterway limits — Handysize, Handymax/Supramax, Panamax and Capesize (too big for the Panama Canal, routing via Cape of Good Hope) — measured in deadweight tonnage. They are typically employed on the charter market (voyage or time charter) rather than liner schedules, and quantities are settled by draft survey. Bulk carriers are the workhorses that move the world's raw materials in enormous volumes at low cost per tonne.
The bulk carrier is how the planet moves its coal, grain and ore — chartered by the shipload, sized to canals and trades, and priced per tonne like a floating commodity. Its size classes and chartering shape whole raw-material markets. Knowing the bulker and its classes is core to dry-bulk shipping.
What are the main bulk carrier size classes?
Handysize, Handymax/Supramax, Panamax and Capesize — from small, flexible ships up to the largest that must round the Cape rather than transit the Panama Canal.
How are bulk carriers usually employed?
On the charter market — voyage or time charters — rather than fixed liner schedules.