AmericasOperations

Expanded Panama Canal retakes market share

Less than three weeks after the inauguration of its new locks the expanded Panama Canal has leapfrogged the Suez Canal as the route with the largest share of container traffic between the US and east Asia.

The intent of the $5.3bn expansion project was to enable Panama to handle NeoPanamax vessels that represent a tripling of capacity over the previous maximum per vessel. And the early returns seem to show that tactic is working.

Figures from shipping information service Alphaliner show Panama now has a 57% volume share of that trade compared to just 48% at the start of the year.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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