Bulk cargo is cargo that is unpacked (un-bundled or un-bound) and is of the same or a similar kind or nature (homogeneous). These cargos are usally dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or solid, into a bulk carriers hold, train car, or truck-trailer body. Bulk cargos are classified as liquid or dry.

The largest bulk carriers cargo ship in the world is the iron ore carrier Berge Stahl. Weighing in at a massive 364,768 dead-weight-tons (metric), she was built in 1986. The Berge Stahl is 1,122 feet (343m) long, has a beam, or width, of 208.3 feet (65m), and a draft, or depth in the water, of 75.5 feet (23m). The Hyundai B&W 7L90MCE diesel engine is 30-feet high, drives a single 30-ft screw, and puts out 27,610 horsepower. She is owned by the Norwegian shipping company Bergesen D.Y. ASA, and has a top speed of 13.5 knots. Because of her massive size, the Berge Stahl can only tie up at two ports in the world, hauling ore from the Terminal Marítimo de Ponta da Madeira in Brazil to the Port of Rotterdam-Europoort in the Netherlands, making the trip about ten times each year, or a round-trip about every five weeks.

• Dry bulk cargos:
  • coal
  • grain (wheat, maize, rice, barley, oats, rye, sorghum, soybeans, etc.)
  • iron ore (ferrous & non-ferrous ores, ferroalloys, pig iron, scrap metal, etc.)
  • wood chips
  • cement
  • chemicals (fertilizer, plastic granules & pellets, resin powder, synthetic fiber, etc.)
  • dry edibles (alfalfa pellets, citrus pellets, livestock feed, flour, meal, peanuts, raw sugar, seeds, starches, etc.)
  • bulk mine (sand & gravel, copper, salt, etc.)

 

• Liquid bulk cargos:
  • oil
  • liquefied natural gas (LNG)
  • gasoline
  • chemicals
  • liquid edibles (vegetable oil, cooking oil, etc.)

 

• Large bulk sea-going companies:
  • Aasen Shipping & Aasen Chartering (Norway)
  • American Steamship Company (United States)
  • Canada Steamship Lines (Canada)
  • Commercial Trading & Discount (Greece)
  • Czech Ocean Shipping (Czech Republic)
  • Daeyang Shipping (China - Greece - Japan)
  • Fednav (Canada)
  • Gearbulk (Norway - Japan)
  • M/S Fjordbulk (Norway)
  • NOL Services (Singapore)
  • OAM Coal Trade and Bulk Shipping (Germany)
  • Österströms Rederi AB (Sweden)
  • SMC Marine Services (Singapore)
  • Samsun Logix (South Korea)
  • The Skaarup Group (United States)
  • Zhejiang Ocean Shipping Company (China)