Panamax & Kamsarmax · about 65,000 to 85,000 dwt
Charter a Panamax or Kamsarmax vessel for your cargo.
For larger grain, coal and minor bulk stems between terminals with shore equipment. CharterDeck's AI checks your cargo against each ship's intake, the draft and berth limits at both terminals and the loading and discharge equipment, and compares the voyage economics; your broker takes the strongest ships to owners and negotiates the fixture.
- Scale for larger stems
- More cargo per voyage, and a lower freight per tonne where the stem fills the ship.
- Shore gear required
- Usually gearless: the terminals must load and discharge her.
- Broker-led fixture
- Your broker weighs scale against access with you and negotiates the terms.
How AI checks a panamax fit
At this size the terminals decide as much as the cargo does. CharterDeck's AI screens the ports before it ranks the ships:
- Confirms both terminals take a panamax or kamsarmax on draft, length and berth
- Checks that the shore equipment can load and discharge a gearless ship
- Compares the scale saving with the cost of a longer ballast to your load port
- Checks a kamsarmax's extra length and intake against each berth
- Ranks the ships on freight per tonne across the whole voyage
When a panamax or kamsarmax fits
Panamax and kamsarmax ships suit larger grain and coal stems, and larger minor bulk parcels, moving between terminals with shore equipment and enough water. The kamsarmax is a slightly longer panamax design of about 82,000 dwt.
Scale against access
The larger ship spreads its costs over more cargo, which usually brings the freight per tonne down; the price is fewer ports that can take her. A panamax only makes sense where both terminals can.
Gearless means shore gear
Most panamax and kamsarmax ships have no cranes of their own. Loading and discharge depend on the terminal's equipment, and its rates shape the laytime and the voyage.
Moving a larger stem between well-equipped terminals? Send it and get panamax and kamsarmax options.
Send your cargoThe ballast leg
A larger ship may ballast further to reach your load port, and that leg can eat into the scale saving. Positions are compared, not only rates.
Cargoes that often suit a panamax or kamsarmax
- Larger grain stems between deep-water terminals
- Coal
- Larger minor bulk stems
What moves the freight
- Whether the stem is large enough to fill the ship
- Draft and berth limits at both terminals
- Terminal loading and discharge rates
- Ballast distance to the load port
- Port costs at the larger terminals
- The panamax market at the time
How a panamax and kamsarmax charter runs with CharterDeck
- You send the requirement, in a minute with the form or as you would circulate it
- Our AI structures it, screens suitable ships and compares the voyage economics
- Your broker reviews the shortlist with you and checks every point the AI has flagged
- Your broker works the owners and negotiates freight and terms
- The recap is issued from the agreed terms, and the voyage is followed to discharge
Questions, answered
- Can a panamax discharge without shore cranes?
- Usually not: most panamax and kamsarmax ships are gearless, so the terminal needs its own equipment. If it has none, a geared supramax or ultramax is often the better fit.
- Should I charter a panamax or a kamsarmax?
- Where both terminals accept the kamsarmax's extra length, its larger intake can lower the freight per tonne for a big enough stem. The berths are checked and both sizes compared.
- Is a panamax cheaper than a supramax?
- Per tonne it often is, for a stem large enough to fill it and ports that take it. Where the stem is smaller or the discharge relies on the ship's gear, the supramax is usually the stronger option.
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Matched in seconds, negotiated by a broker
Send us a cargo or an open vessel. Our system matches it in seconds, and your broker comes back with the best options.