The Costs at the Canal!
The Panama Canal expansion was anticipated to induce changes in ports of call on the US Coasts. While the findings are still out of the consequences of the expansion on world and Midwest logistics, one thing that has changed is the price to transit the canal. Prior to the expansion of the canal the record transit cost was $461,000 paid by one ship. Then the record jumped to $1.1 million. It is estimated the Canal supplies 12% of Panama’s gross domestic product. Normally container ship transits cost somewhere between $60,000 and $300,000.
With continued congestion conflated by drought and low water, an auction system allows some ships to buy their way to the front of the line at the Canal. Recent reports suggest that the front of the line bidding resulted in a $4 million transit cost!
Read more at the article below.