Ships

Ship types and what they carry

Published 28 August 2026 · updated 17 October 2026

A merchant ship is not a general purpose box that comes in different sizes. One thing decides the type: the physical state of the cargo. Almost everything else follows from it, including the shape of the holds, the equipment that moves the cargo, the code the ship is surveyed against, and the market it is chartered in. A type name tells you which cargoes the ship can carry and which it cannot.

Four states of cargo, and the families that follow

Cargo comes in four states: solids poured in loose, liquids that are pumped, gas that travels as a liquid only because it has been cooled, compressed or both, and goods that keep their own shape and must be handled piece by piece. Every merchant ship type is built for one of those four.

Family	What it carries	How the cargo moves
Bulk carrier	Uniform solids poured in loose: iron ore, coal, grain, bauxite, cement, fertiliser	Shore conveyors and grabs, or the ship’s own cranes if it is geared
Tanker	Liquids: crude oil, refined products, vegetable oils, chemicals	Pumped through a manifold (a set of pipe connections). Nothing is lifted, so a tanker berth looks empty while the ship works
Gas carrier	LPG, LNG, ammonia, ethylene, kept as a liquid by pressure, cooling or both	Pumped into containment that is designed as part of the ship, not just a tank
Container ship	Anything that fits in a box	Gantry cranes lift boxes into cell guides. Almost always on a liner schedule (a fixed regular service), not a voyage charter
General cargo and multipurpose	Breakbulk (separate pieces), bagged goods, steel, timber, project cargo	The ship’s own cranes, onto tweendecks or into box shaped holds
Ro-ro and car carrier	Anything with wheels, and anything that can be put on a trailer	Driven on board over a ramp, so the ship spends much less time in port than it would if the cargo were lifted
Reefer	Chilled and frozen food, fish	Loaded on pallets into insulated holds and kept at a set carrying temperature. That temperature is a term of the contract
Heavy lift	Single pieces too large or too heavy for any of the above	The ship’s own heavy cranes, or floated on and off a deck that can be lowered into the water

The distinction most often lost: bulk carrier or general cargo

These two look alike from outside, but one cannot replace the other. A modern bulk carrier has one open space in each hold, from the floor of the hold (the tank top) up to the hatch. Sloped tanks at the bottom (hopper tanks) and at the top (topside tanks) make the cargo level itself, which is called self trimming. That shape is excellent for ore and useless for cargo that must be stacked, kept separate or kept off the steel.

A general cargo or multipurpose ship has tweendecks. These are removable decks that divide the hold into upper and lower levels, and the ship often has box shaped holds with straight sides. This gives the ship separate spaces for several parcels, a floor to stack bagged cargo on, and usable space at the sides that a hopper tank would waste. The cost is that the ship carries less weight (less deadweight) and is slower.

The effect on business is direct. A cargo of 8,000 tonnes of bagged rice in four parcels for four receivers needs a multipurpose ship. A self trimming bulk carrier offered for it is not a weak offer. It is an offer that the ship cannot perform.

The rulebook follows the cargo, not the ship

The type decides which international code governs the loading. Those codes create duties for the parties to the fixture (the agreed charter), not only for the master.

Solid bulk is carried under the IMSBC Code. The code puts every cargo into a group and requires the shipper to declare it. Group A cargoes may liquefy (turn to slurry) above their transportable moisture limit. That is why an iron ore fines fixture has a moisture certificate clause.
Grain has its own rules, the International Grain Code, because shifting grain is a stability problem, not a cargo care problem.
Chemicals in bulk come under the IBC Code. It sets the ship type required for each product. So a chemical tanker’s certificate of fitness, not its deadweight, decides what it may load.
Liquefied gases come under the IGC Code, which covers containment, temperature and pressure and is the reason gas carriers can almost never switch between trades.

What a register’s type field actually says

Every fleet database has a type field, but it is a data vendor’s label based on what the ship reported and what the source recorded. It is not the result of a survey, and its groups are broader than the words the trade uses.

34,449

Hulls in the register with the simple type Cargo. That one label covers bulk carriers, general cargo ships, container ships and multipurpose ships, without separating them. Next to it are 15,458 tankers, 12,288 tugs, 9,619 fishing vessels and 5,649 passenger ships.

Use the type field as a first filter, never as the answer. The details a broker actually needs are: geared or gearless, tweendecker or single deck, box holds or hoppers, grain fitted or not. They are on the owner’s particulars sheet and in the class notations, not in the type column. A search that trusts only the type column will offer the wrong ship and give no sign that it is wrong.

Where the type lands in a fixture

Each family has its own size classes, because the limits differ. Dry bulk sizes run from Handysize to Capesize. Tanker sizes run from MR to VLCC, with completely different boundaries. A ship is offered within its own family, for a cargo that suits its cargo equipment and hold shape, at a berth that can take its draught.

So work in this order: what state the cargo is in, which family that requires, what size band the parcel needs, and only then which named ships are open. If you choose the wrong family at the start, every later step is wrong, however carefully you do it.

References

UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2025, 2025. unctad.org
IMO, International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code. imo.org
IMO, International Code for the Safe Carriage of Grain in Bulk, resolution MSC.23(59), 1991. imo.org
IMO, International Code for the Construction and Equipment of Ships Carrying Liquefied Gases in Bulk (IGC Code). imo.org
IMO, Bulk Carrier Safety. imo.org

Dry bulk vessel sizesHandysize to Capesize: where the deadweight bands sit, why their edges are trade habits, and how many ships fall in each. Tanker sizesHandy to ULCC: where the tanker size bands sit, and why the coating and the last three cargoes decide suitability, not the deadweight. Reading a ship's particularsWhat each figure on a vessel description limits, why GRT measures volume, and why draught rules a ship out long before deadweight does. Hull form and resistanceHow much fuel a ship burns depends on the shape of its hull, and on how clean that hull has been kept since the last drydocking.

Neptune Atlas

Neptune Atlas keeps the type label exactly as the source wrote it and does not rewrite it into a neater scheme, so a filter works on what is actually in the record. Where the source group is broader than the trade’s word for the same ship, the record says so instead of guessing. Every paid plan starts with 7 free days. A card is needed to start them, and cancelling before they end costs nothing.

Try 7 days free Ship chartering software for brokers What each plan includes