Expanded Panama Canal Expected to Cut Shipping Costs

U.S. soybean farmers could see lower costs because of bigger shipments in the newly expanded and deeper Panama Canal. Ag Web reports the $5.25 billion project expanded the canal and created a deeper and wider set of locks. The expansion means the Canal can handle bigger ships that sink to 50 feet deep, and before the expansion, it could only handle ships that sank to 39.5 feet. That will mean exports can load bigger ships with more soybeans and that will cut shipping costs. Lower costs would make American soybeans more price-competitive on the world markets. More soybeans in a vessel make for more revenue-producing freight spread over the cost of the ship. Those ships typically handle 2.1 million bushels of soybeans, so an increase of 500,000 is considered a significant jump by the industry.

Source:  NAFB News