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I'm curious what this will mean for international shipping as a whole. Not having to transit the Panama Canal means freighters are limited in size only by the
by redthrowaway 13y ago
I'm curious what this will mean for international shipping as a whole. Not having to transit the Panama Canal means freighters are limited in size only by the dimensions of their ports of call. That alone might make the Northwest Passage attractive even for those routes where it's not the shortest path.
- InclinedPlane 13y agoKeep in mind that the locks of the Panama canal are getting bigger. By 2015 a new set of locks will increase capacity of the canal and also allow ships that are up to 60% wider (55m), 33% longer (427m), and with 45% deeper draft (18m) to pass through. Granted, even that size is not large enough to accommodate a monster like a Maersk triple-E class container ship (which is 59m wide and has too deep a draft to dock anywhere in the Americas), but the vast majority of the largest container ships in the world (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_container_ships http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_container_ships) will fit (91 out of 100 by my count). Whereas none of the ships on that list could pass through the current locks in the Panama canal.
- ianstallings 13y agoAnd China plans on building another canal through Central America: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10212169/Chinese-entrepreneur-reveals-route-for-Nicaraguan-canal.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1021216...
- kgermino 13y agoI realize you mentioned this, but there would be ships bigger than New Panamax[1] and if nothing else a Northwester Passage might mean that more larger ships get built. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax Interesting, if nothing else.