The Panama Canal, an engineering wonder allowing ships to travel between two oceans, is seeking to adapt to climate change after a biting drought has seen traffic and income dry up.
The canal relies on rainwater to move ships through a series of locks that function like water elevators, raising the vessels up and over the continent between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
However, a water shortage due to low rainfall has forced operators to restrict the number of vessels passing through, which is likely to result in a US$200 million drop in earnings in 2024 compared to this year, canal administrator Ricaurte Vasquez said on Thursday.
Photo: AFP
The Pacific warming phenomenon known as El Nino, which can cause drought in some nations and flooding in others, is making the situation worse, meteorologists say.
“The big disadvantage that the Panama Canal has as a maritime route is that we operate with freshwater, while others use seawater,” Vasquez said during a presentation to the media.
“We have to find other solutions to remain a relevant route for international trade. If we don’t adapt, we are going to die,” he said.
The 80km byway moves about 6 percent of all global maritime commerce, and revenue for this year is forecast to be US$4.9 billion, he said.
The canal opened in 1914 after a monumental construction project through dense jungles and mountains, with workers suffering tropical diseases, intense heat and rain.
Since then, more than a million vessels have transited through the canal, saving them a lengthy journey around the tip of South America.
Meteorologist Alcely Lau said that the country has “observed considerable deficits” in rainfall this year, boosted by El Nino.
The drought has forced canal administrators to restrict the waterway to ships with a draft of 13.11m — which refers to how deep they sit in the water.
Last year, an average of 40 ships crossed through the canal each day, a number which has dropped to 32 to save water.
For each ship, 200 million liters of freshwater is used to move it through the locks before being dumped into the sea.
“This crisis is unusually severe,” said Vasquez, adding that the “significant restrictions” would be in place until September next year.
Due to the draft restrictions, some merchant ships are forced to unload their containers and send the lighter vessel through the canal, while the goods traverse Panama by rail before being reloaded for shipping.
If the drought and resulting restrictions continue, Vasquez said he fears shipping companies would “opt for other routes.”
This includes the Strait of Magellan — a natural passage at the tip of South America between the mainland and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.
“We think that if we find a solution relatively soon — not necessarily an immediate solution, but one customers know is on the way — it should alleviate long-term concern,” Vasquez said.
The lack of rain has also increased the salinity of the lakes and rivers that make up the canal’s watershed — which also provides water to three cities, including the capital, Panama City.
“Every time we open the gate that leads to the sea, seawater is mixed with fresh water,” Vasquez said.
“We have to keep that level of salt water within a certain range, because the water treatment plants do not have desalination capacity,” he added.
The dwindling freshwater cannot be replaced with sea water — as used by the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea — as this would require massive excavations.
“Suez was much flatter and it was sand. In our case it is rock and there is a mountain range, which is not very high, but it is there and it is a challenge,” Vasquez said.
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
SEMICONDUCTORS: Samsung and Texas Instruments would receive US$4.75 billion and US$1.6 billion respectively to build one chip factory in Utah and two in Texas Samsung Electronics Co and Texas Instruments Inc completed final agreements to get billions of US dollars of government support for new semiconductor plants in the US, cementing a major piece of US President Joe Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act initiative. Under binding agreements unveiled Friday, Samsung would get as much as US$4.75 billion in funding, while Texas Instruments stands to receive US$1.6 billion — money that would help them build facilities in Texas and Utah. The final deals mean the chipmakers can begin collecting the funding when their projects hit certain benchmarks. Though the terms of Texas Instruments’ final agreement is
Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs. Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades, and come with a lifetime repair warranty. On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid, which stains his hands and nails as he repeats the process. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan —
Japan ramped up its warnings against currency speculation on Friday after the yen slid to a five-month low following a hint from the central bank chief that he might wait longer than expected before raising interest rates. “The government’s deeply concerned about recent currency moves, including those driven by speculators,” Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We will take appropriate action if there are excessive moves in the currency market.” The yen regained some ground against the dollar after Kato’s remarks, strengthening to as much as ￥156.89 after earlier weakening to ￥157.93. The Japanese currency strengthened a little further after currency
RSS