The New Panama Canal: Who Wins; Who Loses?

The new set of locks at the Panama Canal is open for business. How will it affect North American shipping patterns? A year and a half late, hugely over budget and bearing serious questions about its design and construction, the widening of the Panama Canal is finally complete. When first announced a decade ago, the project promised to alter the way in which ocean cargoes moved in and out of North America. U.S. West Coast ports, in particular, were expected to lose large volumes of business to their East and Gulf Coast counterparts, with shippers opting for the cheaper (if slower) all-water option from Asia. But what is the actual impact, both short-term and long, of a wider canal? On this episode, we get a perspective from David Egan, head of industrial and logistics research for global commercial real estate giant CBRE. He speculates on who the winners and losers will be – specifically, what East Coast ports must do to take advantage of the improved route, and how West Coast ports can defend their market share. But the shift might have begun long before the new locks opened, he says.