PANAMA CITY, (APP/AFP) – Panama is preparing
to officially open its canal this weekend to far bigger cargo ships
after nearly a decade of expansion work aimed at boosting transit
revenues and global trade.
On Sunday, a VIP ceremony will be held on the banks of the
canal to inaugurate the completion of the works.
President Juan Carlos Varela will unveil the new locks and
third shipping lane built into the 102-year-old canal. Foreign
dignitaries, including the presidents of Taiwan, Chile, and other
Central American nations, will be present at the ceremony.
A Chinese-owned Neopanamax-class cargo ship will be the
first vessel to officially test the new infrastructure, entering
from the Atlantic and exiting into the Pacific a few hours later.
The Neopanamax vessels are much bigger than the Panamax-class
ships that previously were the largest able to pass through the
80-kilometer (50-mile) long canal. Each is able to haul three times
as much cargo as the smaller predecessors.
The expansion work began in 2007 and was meant to have been
completed in 2014, but it ran well past deadline, and over
budget.
– Pride, and opportunity –
==========================
For Panama, the unveiling of the broader canal is a moment
of pride and of opportunity.
Now, ships as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall, and as
broad as Olympic-sized swimming pools, will be able to use the
canal.
Annual cargo volumes should double over the next decade,
leading Panama to hope to triple the $1 billion in shipping
fees it receives each year.
World trade should also benefit from what will essentially
be an inter-oceanic highway for goods between the United States
and Asia. More cargo on bigger ships should mean lower transport
costs.
Panama is also avidly eying the lucrative market of
transporting liquefied natural gas between the United States
and Asia, principally to Japan.
The ships carrying the gas were too big to use the
old canal. With the expansion, they now can.
“The inauguration of the expanded Panama Canal means
new opportunities for international trade,” Panama’s president
said.
Currently some five percent of global maritime commercial
traffic uses the canal, which provides a valuable shortcut
between North America and Asia.