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The Geo-economic Effects of the Expansion of the Panama Canal on World Maritime Trade



Author(s)

Massimo Deandreis

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2016.09.004

This paper originates from a wider research project launched by SRM—an Italian Research Centre related to Intesa Sanpaolo Banking Group and named “Observatory on Maritime Transport and Logistics”. The aim is to contribute to the analysis of the economic impact that strategic maritime infrastructures—like ports and canals—produce on trade and global maritime routes; with a special focus to the effects directed and originating in the Mediterranean. This paper—focused on the New Panama Canal—also offers a perspective view of the new scenarios connected to the fact that thisinfrastructure—opened last June—can accommodate larger ships and new types of vessels including those transporting LNG and LPG (liquefied natural gas and petroleum gas). The expansion of the Canal will help broaden the strategic dimension of Panama allowing it to become a more important maritime hub, especially for the American Continent and the US. To complete the analysis it has been provided a comparison with the Suez Canal on some world routes involving the Americas, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, since these two canals are proposing a massive competition inthe quality of logistics andalso in the pricing policy for the transit fee.

Panama Canal, Suez Canal, Maritime Transport, Mediterranean, maritime hub, logistics, transit fee, port

Deandreis, M. (2016). The geo-economic effects of the expansion of the Panama Canal on world maritime trade. International Relations and Diplomacy, 4(9), 584-587.