A bulk carrier, or bulker, is a merchant ship that has been specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Bulk carriers make up approximately 20% of the world's merchant fleet in terms of the number of vessels.
For the bulk carrier segment, Wärtsilä offers high efficiency, low emissions, common rail engines, plus a range of state-of-the-art propulsion products, automation, auxiliary equipment, and even ship design. For slow running merchant vessels, such as bulk carriers, propeller nozzles can achieve gains in efficiency of up to 10%. Further information about our products can be found here.
Owners and yards choosing Wärtsilä equipment are able to benefit from easy installation, low running costs, and support throughout the entire lifecycle of the equipment.
Bulk carriers can be divided in to size categories according to deadweight tonnage and hull dimensions:
| Vessel type |
Size |
| VLOC, very large ore carrier |
> 200000 dwt |
| Capesize |
80000-200000 dwt |
| Panamax |
60000-80000 dwt |
| Handymax |
40000-60000 dwt |
| Handy |
10000-40000 dwt |
| Small |
< 10000 dwt |
