The US could get a major trade boost from the soon-to-be-finished expansion of the Panama Canal, but experts worry poor infrastructure means Uncle Sam will miss the boat.
From 2014, some of the largest ships in the world will again fit through the 80km Panama Canal. Vessels carrying about 14,000 containers rather than today’s 5,000 will be able to cross the isthmus.
Traffic is expected to double through the inter-oceanic waterway, which already handles about 5 percent of world trade.
For people linked via the canal — most notably consumers in the eastern US and factory owners in China — that could spell cheaper goods and lower costs.
It could also provide US President Barack Obama with a late boost in his effort to double US exports by 2015 and help create jobs.
In Florida alone, the authorities believe upgrading the Port of Miami to handle these larger ships could help create 30,000 jobs.
However, during a visit to Washington last week the canal’s administrator Alberto Aleman Zubieta expressed concern that the US is not ready.
“There is a lot of infrastructure that basically needs to be upgraded,” he said, pointing to problems with dock length, port depth and rail and road links.
Like much of the US’ infrastructure, its ports are creaking from years of underinvestment and many even struggle to handle today’s largest “panamax” ship sizes.
“We don’t have the channel depths that are required to take the post-panamax vessels,” said Dave Sanford, of the American Association of Port Authorities.
The list of ports that do, he said, “is really short. It’s only one port: Norfolk [Virginia].”
While Baltimore, New York and Miami may also be ready by 2014, they handle a fraction of US trade and are not on the Gulf Coast, which serves consumers and exporters in the vast center of the US.
Perched on the meandering Mississippi, the Port of New Orleans is one of many facilities that has struggled to match infrastructure to its opportunities.
It is investing US$650 million on new canal-linked projects, mostly on container terminals, but chief executive Gary LaGrange said the port is still not at fighting weight.
“We’ll be ready, but not as ready as we could be, or should be,” he said.
Blame for the -unpreparedness is being spread far and wide: Former US president George Washington, the Army Corp of Engineers and Congress are all in the firing line.
Since Washington’s time the US Army has played a role ensuring waterways are navigable.
Even today, the Army Corps of Engineers — with one eye on its own limited budget and resources — must approve and execute many upgrades.
Congress, which is currently focused on cutting US debt, then has to approve funding.
That results in significant delays, according to many in the industry.
LaGrange said New Orleans already holds much sought-after permission to dredge its channel to 15m — enough to handle post-panamax ships.
However, bureaucracy means the project is on the back burner.
“Right now it is everything we can do to get the Corp of Engineers to maintain it at its current 47 foot [14.3m] depth,” he said.
Similarly, the Port of Beaumont, Texas, is waiting for approval of a US$1.2 billion project to deepen its channel, but even if the project is approved this year, it is likely to take 15 years to complete.
“Our system is broken, it’s just broken. It needs to be fixed,” said John Roby, head of the port’s customer services.
In the meantime, shippers are looking to deeper ports beyond the US; to Freeport in the Bahamas and Kingston in Jamaica.
“Unless we can get more channel capacity, they are going to be the primary beneficiaries of an expanded canal,” Sanford said.
Ultimately, that may cost US consumers.
“If you can’t take advantage of the economies of scale that the larger vessels offer,” said Paul Bingham, an economist with Wilbur Smith Associates, “the bottom line is it’s going to cost you more. For the economy that ultimately means that the consumers are going to be worse off.”
The Bolivian government on Friday struck a deal with protesting miners, but was still grappling with blockades and demonstrations by other workers across La Paz. Other groups are still blocking access roads into the city, which is also the seat of the government. Police on Thursday prevented the miners from entering the main square by using tear gas, while the demonstrators hurled stones and explosives with slingshots. Protests against the policies of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz have convulsed the Andean nation since early this month, and roadblocks were choking routes into La Paz throughout Friday, the national road authority said. Miners demanded that Paz
The Philippines said it has asked the country’s Supreme Court to allow it to arrest former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s chief drug war enforcer to stand trial in an international tribunal. The International Criminal Court (ICC) last week unsealed an arrest warrant against Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa, accusing him along with Duterte and other “coperpetrators” of the “crime against humanity of murder.” Dela Rosa briefly sought refuge in the Philippine Senate last week while asking the Philippine Supreme Court to stop an ongoing attempt by government agents to arrest him. “By his own conduct, he has placed himself outside the protection of
A ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was seized and taken toward Iran and another — a cargo ship near Oman — sank after being attacked, authorities said on Thursday, as tensions escalated near the Strait of Hormuz. It was not immediately clear who was behind these incidents, but they happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the waterway and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the US. The turmoil in the strait has been a sticking point for weeks in talks between the US and Iran to
The researchers in Ireland looked at their computer screen, marveling at a medieval book tracked down in a Roman library. They flipped through its digitized pages and found their sought-after treasure: the oldest surviving English poem. “We were extremely surprised. We were speechless. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we first saw that,” said Elisabetta Magnanti, a visiting research fellow at Trinity College Dublin’s school of English. The poem was also within the main body of Latin text, she said, calling it “extraordinary.” Composed in Old English by a Northumbrian agricultural worker in the 7th century, Caedmon’s Hymn appears within some copies of
RSS