Inside the World’s Largest Cargo Shipping Bottleneck Today | WSJ

As someone unexplainably (to myself) fascinated with logistics, this was informative.

Seems people are concerned more about the 5 days wait time, rather than the loss of fresh water reserves

Eventually, they'll need to build a isolated Canal from the freshwater supply and use ocean water. And save the freshwater for the locals and environmental

The Panama Canal’s issue is their management. They refuse to take on the cost of pumping water up hill. Instead, once the water reaches the lowest locks on either side, it’s lost to the ocean. Yes, the new lanes use water conservation methods to reduce the amount of water they release into the ocean but that still drains significant amounts of fresh water into the ocean

As someone who has transited the cannal on oil taker ships in 2012,13,14. Whenever we arrived Panama we were always asked to be at anchorage whether it was near the Gatun locks or Ballboa. Ive only had canal transit on arrival just once. I always thought the water used for the locks was pumped through tanks and managed the equilibrium of water. The other issue i found with the video is me being a navigator on the ship (The person who would plan the root) those days i knew it would take us 1 week from US to the canal. If we went round via the cape horn it would take us more than a month keeping in mind the oil takers, bulk carriers,generally top out at 15kts(only container vessels and cruise ships do 22kts) and even with container ships it would definitely take more than 2 weeks to go around. Its just the time that plays. The problem is the ship charterer dont consider the waiting time when initially planning. Chateres pay that huge canal fee for transit so they keep getting business with the clients and make up the money solwly. If ships have efficient engine's they would go the longer way no problems.

Very nice reporting WSJ.

So at 01:00 they say that the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 meant 5 days could be saved compared to sailing "around the tip of South America". Why would any modern ship 100 years later spend 20 days waiting to pass the canal? The 400k$ fee is probably lower than the alternative fuel cost, but time is money, too, right?

I wonder how much deforestation in the mountains of Panama has affected water supply in the river/lake system feeding the canal.

Very informative video. Now I can understand why my work is slow here in Houston, TX. I gone from doing 4-5 loads a week to 1-2 loads making it very difficult to survive.

Fascinating journalism. I never imagined the canal was not a closed loop. Even watching the diagram it seems self evident to flow from one to the next and back. Poor vision and infrastructure management upfront does not mean it’s too late to correct. Fix the system rather than compound strain and destruction of the ecosystem with more dams and consumption.

I'm surprised there was no discussion about issues related to possibly recycling the water. As discussed in the comments, there is a problem that the fresh water gets mixed with salty water brought in by the ships as it is used in a lock. There is the issue of power if used water were pumped into special ponds or tanks. But moving to a more circular economic-resource model seems the long-run solution, in comparison to depleting finite freshwater resources.

Wow, I learned a lot. Good reporting

I think the longer route around South America takes more than 5 days 😂 @1:01

I just returned from Panama and the Mira Flores canal was amazing! Over 100 years old and shill operating at maximum efficiency!

No wonder I'm already subscribed when you come up with stuff like this "Wow" ;)

Great information 😊

Thank god my ship wasn't stuck in this traffic. There was a delay tho but still managed to make the crossing after 16 days.

In 1900, digging an 85 foot deep trench might have been harder than a series of locks. In 2023, how about digging the passage deeper and making it an entirely salt water waterway?

Good Afternoon Dr Mercogliano, I read this article yesterday. As I'm driving my grandson home from school today I asked him if he thought about what he wanted for Christmas yet?? Surprisingly he hasn't given it much thought. Seeing a post yesterday listing about 154 ships waiting in the que, I 🤔 told him he may want to start.

definitely fascinating.. thankyou for sharing this 🙂