The expanded Panama canal is scheduled to open in about a
month and Bloomberg News says that could boost world trade.
It expects an impact on grain trade and notes that many
ports in other countries have been deepened in anticipation of ships arriving
from the deepened canal.
The project has cost about $5 billion, yet the locks are
still not large enough to handle the largest gas-carrying ships.
There’s more to be exported, thanks to fracking and shale
oil developments in the United States and ongoing expansions in the Canadian
oilsands.