THE GEOGRAPHY OF TRANSPORT SYSTEMS
| Year | "Triple E Class" (projected 2013) | "E Class" (Emma Maersk) | "S Class" (Sovereign Maersk) |
| Capacity (TEU) | 18,000 | 14,500 | 8,400 |
| Length (meters) | 400 | 393 | 348 |
| Width (meters) | 59 | 56 | 43 |
| Draft (meters) | 16.5 | 15.5 | 14 |
| Deadweight (tons) | 165,000 | 156,900 | 105,000 |
| Speed (knots) | 23 (19 optimal) | 25.5 | 25 |
The threshold for containerized maritime shipping is restricted the capacity of three of the world's major bottlenecks: the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and the strait of Malacca. The Emma Maersk class, introduced in 2006, is essentially a Suez-max ship. Ship designs for a "Triple E Class" have been ordered and will be introduced in 2013. They would likely mark to largest commercially feasible ship class for containers. However, their size would imply that only a few ports could handle them, which questions the practical limits of economies of scale. The ultimate containership class, would be the "Malacca Max" with a draft of 21 meters. However, such a ship class would carry about 35,000 TEU and would be of such a dimension that no gantry crane equipment is currently designed to handle. Additionally, few port facilities would be able to accommodate such ships.