Panama Canal expansion plan will not bend for mega-ships
A senior Panama Canal Authority official said its $5.25 billion expansion plans will not be changed to accommodate the latest generation of ultra-large container vessels, but it will consider another set of locks if the demand exists.
The new set of locks at the Pacific and Atlantic coasts entrances will enable vessels carrying about 12,000 TEUs to cross the isthmus when work is completed by 2014. However, the Emma Maersk and her sisters are already too wide to pass through the proposed waterway expansion, and the summer witnessed a flurry of orders for ships that will also be too big to transit the canal. Korean shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries recently unveiled a design for a 16,000-TEU ship.
'There has been some talk of changing these dimensions because there are some carriers interested in going to 13,000-TEU vessels, but we are sticking to these dimensions,' said Rodolfo Sabonge, the authority’s vice president of research and market analysis, at the Terminal Operations Conference held in Panama City.
'If the demand merits it we will maybe talk about another set of locks but we will wait until demand has consolidated and shown that that is the way the world is going,' he said.
Panama Canal expansion plan will not bend for mega-ships
