How ships are measured
Container ships are measured in TEU — how many 20-foot containers they can carry. Bulk carriers and tankers are measured in deadweight tonnes (DWT), the total weight of cargo, fuel and stores they can load. Car carriers are measured in car equivalent units. Length and width matter too: they decide which ports, canals and locks a ship can use.
Why ships keep getting bigger
A ship twice as big does not need twice the crew or twice the fuel, so the cost per container falls as ships grow. The catch is that only deep ports with long quays and huge cranes can handle the biggest ships. That is why India built Vizhinjam: ships of 24,000 TEU can now call directly instead of transferring Indian cargo at Colombo or Singapore.
The size names
- Panamax — the largest that fitted the old Panama Canal locks (32.3 m wide).
- Neo-Panamax — up to 51 m wide, for the expanded canal opened in 2016.
- Capesize — bulk carriers too big for the Suez Canal when loaded, so they sail around the Cape of Good Hope.
- VLCC — very large crude carrier, about 300,000 tonnes.
Questions
How big is the largest container ship?
About 400 m long and 61 m wide, carrying around 24,000 TEU — longer than four football fields placed end to end.
What does TEU mean?
Twenty-foot equivalent unit: one 20-foot container. A 40-foot container counts as two.
How long is a VLCC?
Around 330 metres, carrying about 2 million barrels of crude oil.
Sources
Last checked 2026-11-11. Free to use; please check important details before you rely on them.