Round Table - Could the Panama Canal become a liability for shippers?

John D. McCown - Center for Maritime Strategy - Pound Ridge, NY

Sal Mercogliano - Associate Professor of History - Campbell University - Buies Creek, NC

Kaylee Nix - Freightcaster - FreightWaves

1. The rainy season in Panama won’t come until next year, when will it become cost prohibitive for shippers to use the Panama Canal - or is it already?

2. What’s the added cost right now to waiting for a passage through the canal (in terms of waiting or going around S. America or the Suez?

3. Given the problems in Panama and in Israel where fighting resumed, how much tension is there in the ocean shipping world that the two major canals are chokepoints or risks?

4. How will rates change to reflect these problem areas - US to Chile and Peru have doubled according to Greg Miller.

5. Is building another channel for the canal an option - all be it for the distant future to  deal with future Panamanian droughts?