Feeder vessels or feeder ships are medium-size freight ships. In general, a feeder designates a seagoing vessel with an average capacity of 300 to 1000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) Feeders collect shipping containers from different ports and transport them to central container terminals where they are loaded to bigger vessels, or for further transport into the hub port's hinterland. In that way the smaller vessels feed the larger liners, which carry thousands of containers.
Feeder-max are smaller vessels serving as feeder and distributor of containers and cars for large seagoing ships and seaports, where the routes are not navigable or are uneconomical for large ships. With an average capacity of 2000 to 3000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU)
Panamax cargo ship would typically have a DWT of 65,000–80,000 tonnes, but its maximum cargo would be about 52,500 tonnes during a transit due to draft limitations in the canal.
New Panamax ships can carry 120,000 DWT. Panamax container ships can carry 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) with 13,000 TEU for New Panamax vessels
