Are there also delays?ĪSHIQ: Yes, definitely. RASCOE: And I would imagine that's money, if you have to transport less goods than you otherwise would. To combat this, vessels technically need to be lighter so that their draft, basically the amount of ship that's underwater, doesn't run aground. So once the vessel is at the level of the canal itself, this makes it a navigation concern for a vessel. And so these locks - they will rise because Panama Canal actually is above sea level. So when ships go from ocean to ocean, they have to go through a tier of locks. And so does that mean that some of the ships are being forced to offload some of their goods or to be lighter?ĪSHIQ: Yeah, no, great question. And so the levels aren't sustaining the volume of ships traveling in and out. So this is very unprecedented, that the rainfall amount is not replenishing the lake, which is known as the Gatun Lake. So Panama is notoriously very wet - one of the wettest countries in the world, actually. It's, in fact, fed by fresh water that's collected through lots of the rainfall that was dammed when the canal was built. And I think one of the biggest facts of the canal that people don't realize is that it is not actually fed by ocean water. Is that correct?ĪSHIQ: Yes, that is correct. RASCOE: So can you explain how the drought in Panama is causing these delays? I mean, I think I'm right in saying that the canal uses three times as much water as New York City every day. Welcome to the show.ĪDIL ASHIQ: Thank you, Ayesha. Joining us to discuss the potential impact on global trade is Adil Ashiq, head of the Americas for the maritime intelligence firm MarineTraffic. The cause? An historic drought in Panama, which has reduced the canal's water levels. The Panama Canal is one of the world's major trade routes, but currently it's experiencing a huge traffic jam with dozens of ships backed up in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
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