4 Things To Know About Panama Canal Expansion Opening

By Brad Haire

The Panama Canal expansion, which has been touted for what it will do for global trade, opened officially June 26 when a Chinese megaship successfully eased through the manmade canal.

Here are 4 things to keep in mind about this new passage for global agricultural trade:

1. The first vessel through was Chinese-owned. The ship, Cosco Shipping Panama, carried 9,000 containers. At 158 feet wide and 984 feet long, it is one of the more-modern, mega-vessels for which the expansion was engineered to handle, according to NBC News story “First Vessel Passes Through Newly Expanded Panama Canal”.

2. New lane of traffic doesn’t replace the old. The project creates a new lane of traffic along the canal through the construction of a new set of locks. The older canal-and-lock system accommodates ships with a max size of 5,000 TEUs. (TEU stands for twenty-foot equivalent unit, which describes the capacity of a container ship or terminal.) The expansion can accommodate what are called ‘post-Panamax’ vessels, or megaships up to 14,000 TEUs. The expansion doubles the canal’s capacity, according to the official website of the expansion project.