Panama Canal Expansion

[HJ]

Now that the Panama Canal expansion is upon us, I wonder if anybody has uncovered companies that will benefit or suffer from this.  It just feels like this is quite an important event for the transportation / logistic space, and maybe have important implications for broader regional economies as well.

 

BCG and CH Robinson Worldwide has done a joint study, linked below.

 

https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/transportation-travel-tourism-how-panama-canal-expansion-is-redrawing-logistics/#chapter1

 

 

I wonder if anybody has come across good literatures or thoughts on this subject, as well as specific investment considerations.  Thanks

 

[Cardboard]

I would think it may help a company like Cheniere reduce its shipping time/cost to Asia vs new LNG projects on the West Coast.

 

Any idea about time and/or cost reduction to bring a container directly to a East Coast port vs mostly using Long Beach California? This may have big implications for trucking and railroads.

 

Cardboard

[SmallCap]

Is there a place to find an overview of what traffic currently goes through the canal? from and to which ports, is it asia to NY or asia to europe? What are the major categories of stuff being moved through there currently?

 

I don't think it will change the pattern of what and where things are being sent but will just increase those current patterns.

 

[Guest notorious546]

ARC's charts provide some thoughts on how it could impact LNG markets.

160621_Energy_Charts.pdf

[vox]

An examination by the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/22/world/americas/panama-canal.html?_r=0

[Pelagic]

An examination by the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/22/world/americas/panama-canal.html?_r=0

 

Interesting article. I got a chance to tour both the old canal and some of the new canal's construction a few years ago and they are impressive feats of engineering. When put into perspective though the challenges faced by the new canal seem almost trivial compared to what went into building the original canal.

 

The article points out inferior concrete and the complexities for working with tug boats in the confines of the locks but it never connects the two. I think the Canal Authority's decision to forgo locomotives and use tugboats will prove costly in the long run. The added wear that the wash a large tug's propeller will place on the concrete of the locks is immense and will likely decrease the useful life of the locks by decades when compared to using locomotives on tracks along the outside of the locks to secure ships.

 

 

[CorpRaider]

The Commodore Vanderbilt biographies contained lots of interesting discussion about the canals and the superiority of the Nicaragua route which was preferred by the Commodore, but was basically thwarted by armed "filibusters" from the slave states in the U.S. seeking to set up a pro slavery military dictatorship in Nicaragua.