The expanded Panama Canal is now open

Connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Panama Canal facilitates approximately 5% of global trade pass.

 

After 9 years of gigantic works to expand and build three new locks, the Panama Canal has been officially inaugurated. Sunday, June 28, the Chinese container ship "Andronikos", renamed for the occasion "Cosco Shipping Panama", conducted a first pass.

 

Now the Canal can accommodate vessels carrying between 12,000 and 14,000 containers, measuring up to 49 meters wide and 366 long. 97% to 98% of container ships in the world. These ships could not take the Canal before work enlargement.

 

These widening and the new locks in Agua Clara (Atlantic Ocean side) and Cocoli (Pacific side) requested an investment of over $ 5 billion.

 

The new channel will allow to multiply by 3 times the transit of goods, estimated to date to 320 million tonnes on average each year.