Vessels & Fleet6 min
MV, MT, MS — Every Commercial Ship Prefix in 5 Minutes
MV, MT, MS, LNG/C — every commercial ship prefix explained with real examples from fixture recaps and Bills of Lading. Practical guide for shipping professionals.
2026-07-21
Vessels & Fleet
Ship types, fleet structure, shadow fleet, yard capacity, and the supply side of shipping markets.
11 articles
The supply side of shipping is measured in steel: how many vessels exist, how old they are, how many are being built, how many operate outside the mainstream system. This section covers vessel classification by size and type (VLCC, Suezmax, Aframax, Capesize, Panamax, container classes), fleet age and orderbook analysis, shadow fleet dynamics, yard capacity constraints, and the structural supply factors that set the floor under freight rates.
Future coverage will expand to include ship vetting (SIRE, CDI, RightShip), dry docking cycles, main engine types, and the technical inspections that determine whether a vessel can trade.
Vessels & Fleet9 min
The Ship That's Half-Standardized — Where Global Shipbuilding Unified, and Where It Didn't
A modern ship's hull is standardized worldwide — same steel grades, same welding rules, same safety systems. But the tools and fittings inside the engine room still carry the fingerprints of whichever national industries supplied its engines and components. Why is one layer fully unified and the other one not?
2026-07-15
Vessels & Fleet9 min
The Geography of Ship Repair — Where 12,000 Ships Head Every Year
Every large commercial ship returns to a repair yard on a 5-year regulatory cycle. In 2026 more than 12,000 vessels are due — and half of all dry-dockings happen in just three countries.
2026-07-13
Vessels & Fleet11 min
The Log the Surveyor Reads First — Ship Planned Maintenance, What It Costs, and What AI Is Changing
Ship planned maintenance explained: every main engine, generator, boiler, steering gear, and critical auxiliary system on a commercial vessel is tracked by a Planned Maintenance System — triggered by running hours or calendar intervals, documented for class survey, and mandated by the ISM Code. Maintenance accounts for 40% of vessel OPEX. AI predictive maintenance, now deployed on several hundred ships, promises to cut that cost by 30%. The technology is real. The adoption barrier is scale.
June 27, 2026
Vessels & Fleet8 min
The 900-Ship Arithmetic — Why the VLCC Fleet Is Smaller Than It Looks
The global VLCC fleet has roughly 900 vessels on the register. Subtract the shadow fleet, the age-restricted tonnage, and the ships that cannot trade — the effective fleet is closer to 570. VLCC capacity runs 200,000–320,000 DWT per vessel, carrying approximately 2 million barrels of crude. The orderbook delivered one ship in 2024 and five in 2025. This is the gap between the fleet on paper and the fleet on the water.
June 22, 2026
Vessels & Fleet11 min
1,300 Tankers Outside the System — How the Shadow Fleet Repriced the Ships That Stayed
Ukraine's catalog lists 1,337 vessels. Windward classifies over 1,000 as gray or dark. The IMO flags 367 as false-flagged. The numbers differ because the definitions differ — but the market consequence is the same. Every tanker that leaves the mainstream system is a unit of supply removed from the pool that sets the visible rate. The shadow fleet did not just evade sanctions. It repriced the ships that chose to follow them.
June 18, 2026
Vessels & Fleet10 min
The Yards Cannot Build Two Things at Once — Why June's Order Burst Is a Zero-Sum Game Between Sectors
In the first week of June, four billion dollars in newbuild orders crossed the desks of yards in China and South Korea. Every slot taken was a slot some other sector cannot have. The global market reads the orderbook as a supply forecast. The yards read it as a production calendar — and the calendar is full until 2028.
June 8, 2026
Vessels & Fleet8 min
A Ship's Weight Is Five Different Numbers — And Two of Them Aren't Weight at All
When a news report says a ship is "150,000 tonnes," it could mean five completely different things — and two of them have nothing to do with weight. A ship's tonnage is one of maritime's most confusing pieces of vocabulary, because the word "ton" got borrowed, redefined, and split into a half-dozen meanings over centuries. Here is the plain version: what each number measures, and which one matters when.
May 28, 2026
Vessels & Fleet9 min
Container Ships Explained — Feedermax, Panamax, ULCS, and Why They Keep Getting Bigger
Until 1988, the largest container ship in the world carried 4,300 TEU — roughly what fits on the top deck of a modern Megamax. In the 38 years since, container ships have grown by more than five times, with each step named after a canal, a port, or a strait it broke through. A plain guide to the size labels that quietly organize 80 percent of world trade.
May 26, 2026
Vessels & Fleet8 min
Bulk Carrier Sizes Explained — Capesize, Panamax, Supramax, and the Rest
Bulk carrier size names look technical but they're really shorthand for trade patterns. A Capesize means iron ore. A Panamax hints at grain or coal. About 70% of the world's seaborne iron ore moves on Capesize alone — which is why a single commodity can move the entire BDI. A plain guide to the size labels that quietly organize the dry bulk fleet.
May 22, 2026
Vessels & Fleet8 min
VLCC, Suezmax, Aframax — Every Tanker Size in 8 Minutes
VLCC capacity: 200,000–320,000 DWT, roughly 2 million barrels per voyage. Suezmax: 120,000–200,000 DWT. Aframax: 80,000–120,000 DWT. Each tanker size class is defined by a physical constraint — a canal width, a port draft, a terminal limit. This guide covers every class from MR to ULCC: tonnage, dimensions, cargo capacity, typical routes, and per-barrel economics.
May 20, 2026
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