Suez Canal

Panama Canal

Due to the tripling of the fee for transiting the Panama Canal, post Panamax ships are chosing to take the route through the Suez Canal from Asia to the US East Coast.

The president of Maersk Line, Sobren Skou, stated that his company decided to restructure its service between Asia and the United States east coast through the Suez Canal, which can take ships with 9,000 TEU’s (20 foot containers), in comparison to a máximum of 4,500 TEU’s for the Panama Canal.  The last ship from Asia to the US east coast through the Panama Canal will transit on April 7 and the first service through the Suez Canal will be a week later. “It is much more economical to use the Suez Canal,” said Skou. “One of the reasons that this is occuring is that the cost of using the Panama Canal has increased. It all comes down to costs,” he explained.  In June, Maersk will receive an 18,000 TEU ship, which will be the largest container ship in the world to enter into service.

According to the Suez Canal authority, the number of container ships passing the Suez dropped 12% to 6,332 in 2012 of a total of 17,225 ships passing through the Canal. By comparison the  number of container ships transiting the Panama Canal in 2012 was 3,331 of a total of 14,544 transits through the Canal, according to the Panama Canal Authority’s website.

The distance between China, with its large manufacturing base, to the US east coast is 4% to 5% longer through the Suez Canal than through the Panama Canal, said Skou. For example. the distance from Hong Kong to Charleston, South Carolina, is about 12,000 miles through the Suez Canal and about 11,000 through the Panama Canal.  From Singapore the distance is shorter through the Suez than through Panama.

The rates applied to ships crossing the Panama Canal have triplicated in the last five years to $450,000 per transit for a ship with 4,500 containers, said Skou.  It is not only the Panama Canal that will be affected by this change of route by Maersk, but also the Balboa and Manzanillo ports that receive the ships from the Maersk Line. Some consider that this change of route by the world’s largest container shipping line will be only temporary until the expansión of the Panama Canal is completed and enters into operation in 2015.

By: Michell De La Ossa Prieto for Capital Financiero

(Article in Spanish)

The research is financed by IDB and the United Nations Global Environtmental Fund.

March 25, 2013 Capital Financiero

One of the so-called “Red Devil” (Diablo Rojo) buses of Panama City (which were recently taken out of service and replaced with the modern Metrobus) is now navigating the waters of Sixaola River, Bocas del Toro Province, in search of manatees, according to a report by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). The modified floating bus is the most recent acquisition for marine biology research made by STRI and is equiped with sonar scanners of double frequency, hydrophones, tents, and food.  Counting the manatee population along the Caribbean coast between Panama and Costa Rica is part of a binational project to take inventory of the area’s biodiversity.  Even though vast areas of the Sixaola watershed are protected, deforestation, tourism, hunting, and agricultural chemicals threaten the area.  Financed by the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Global Environmental Fund, the project aims to create a more solid conservation program for the area. The project covers not only the national parks but also adjacent areas of influence. It is estimated that there are from 20 to 150 mantees living in the área. Not only will their numbers be counted, but also their preferred areas for feeding and reproducing will also be studied. (original Spanish article)

By Capital Financiero

パナマの銅山開発計画はコロン県のドノソ地区がセレクトされたようです。会社側の約束通りに事が運べば良いのですが、大自然が相手ですから、大きなプロジェクトゆえに、万が一、想定外の大きな問題や事態が発生し、もしも、考えられない程に環境を破壊した場合、元の自然に戻す計画は容易ではないのではと懸念せざるを得ません。金、銀、銅山は昔から環境破壊が発生しているからです。

Friday March 22, 2013 NEWSROOM PANAMA

With an offer of $5.1 billion, Canadian mining company First Quantum has finally gained control of the giant Panama copper mining project, Minera Panama, from Canada’s Inmet Mining Corporation.

It is the biggest project ever undertaken by any company in Panama, and its development will cost more and create more jobs than the Canal expansion.  The Globe and Mail, published in Toronto, Canada, says that holders of more than 61 percent of the shares of Inmet Mining accepted the hostile bid from First Quantum.  With this operation, First Quantum takes over the Cobre Panama, mining project (Minera Panama) one of the largest undeveloped copper reserves in the world.

The project, which already has 100% financing, will be the largest initiative in Panama since the construction of the Canal, and the largest mining project in the history of Central America. It should be operational in 2016, producing 300,000 tonnes of copper over 40 years.

The project which includes building a railway and a port to will also produce gold, and create up to 10,000 Jobs.  The Cobre Panama project, considered one of the largest copper and gold reserves in the world to be and has the potential to increase its copper production by 176% by 2018. Late last year, Inmet announced that the project’s mineral reserves increased by 27%. Reservations for Balboa, Arm and Botija Abajo total deposits increased to about 26 million pounds. In addition, an estimated contained gold reserves rise by 41% to about 7. 3 million ounces. These new findings extended the mine’s life to 31-40 years.

Inmet’s main assets are its Cayeli copper and zinc mine , located in the province of Rize, northeastern Turkey, and the Panama project, which Quantum saw as the golden egg. (Cobre Panama website)

The Cobre Panama concession is 120 kilometers west of Panama City and 20 kilometers south of the Caribbean cost in the Donoso District, Colon Province of Panama. This project covers 5,900 hectares of the total concessioned area of 13,600 hectares.