Tight squeeze
Expansion plans hit political problems
AT 32.5 metres wide and 80,000 tonnes dead-weight, the largest vessels able to traverse the Panama Canal are not big by today's standards. Some container ships are twice as big as the “Panamax” limit, and oil tankers five times as large. Even so, the canal is operating close to capacity. But the share of world sea cargo that passes through it has dropped from 5.6% in 1970 to 3.4% in 2004, according to Pablo Armuelles of the University of Panama's Institute of Canal Studies.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Tight squeeze”
From the July 23rd 2005 edition
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