A giant Chinese-chartered freighter nudged its way into the expanded Panama Canal today to mark the completion of nearly a decade of work forecast to boost global trade.
Thousands of people cheered and waved flags as they watched the vessel, especially renamed COSCO Shipping Panama, inaugurate the widening of the century-old waterway, which has been fitted with a new shipping lane and locks.
"This is a great day, a day of national unity and a day for Panama," President Juan Carlos Varela said in a speech.
"This is the route that unites the world," he said.
The Chinese ship entered from the Atlantic and was to take hours to make its way to the Pacific side of the country, where a ceremony attended by several heads of state and foreign dignitaries was to take place.
The US - builder of the original canal, which opened in 1914 and is still in operation alongside the additions - was being represented by the wife of US Vice President Jose Biden, Jill Biden, and the US ambassador to Panama.
The United States and China are the two most frequent canal users. Its expansion is expected to greatly benefit commercial traffic between North America and Asia.
The expansion work carried out since 2007 - and finished two years late at a cost of at least USD 5.5 billion - allows a new generation of much larger ships, known as Neopanamax class vessels, to ply the canal.
Neopanamax freighters can carry up to three times the cargo of older and smaller Panamax ships. Cruise ships built to the same dimensions typically double the number of passengers of the previous iteration.
The expansion will also allow Panama to lure massive liquified natural gas (LNG) tankers for the first time.
They represent a lucrative segment of the shipping market whose importance has grown with the development of US exports of natural gas from shale, most of which head to Japan and South Korea.
Varela said yesterday the first LNG vessel is scheduled to cross the canal next month. He predicts that many more will follow.
Panama's plan behind the expansion is to triple the USD 1 billion in revenues it currently gets from canal shipping fees.
However, that goal might still be a decade or more away, according to officials from the Panama Canal Authority, the autonomous government agency that runs the waterway.
