post panamax

Project will increase available ship capacity within two years.

The final part of the FreightWaves series on the Panama Canal focuses on dry bulk transits. The two trends: US agribulk cargo to Asia is down, Colombian coal to the west coast of South America and Asia is up.

In the second-part of its series on the Panama Canal, FreightWaves interviews a canal authority executive on trends for container-ship transits and expectations for ship size growth in the years ahead.

Funding plan keeps Charleston and Savannah on course to handle larger container ships.

China imposed a 25% import duty on US soybean imports in July and a domestic shortage of beans is now resulting in Chinese traders paying a higher price for Brazilian beans than what domestic crushers are paying, leading to speculation that China could again increase shipments from the US.

A surge in hydro-power, cleaner air in the Capital and a need to further stimulate the economy will see increased demand for seaborne coal supplies to China this winter. That is good news for freight.