Climate change seems to be hitting international trade hard as well, as over 200 ships are reported to be stuck in the Panama Canal due to drought.
Movement in one of the most strategic centers for global freight traffic is paralyzed because there is not enough water to operate the necessary system that allows ships to pass through the canal.
4% of the world’s container traffic passes through this basic structure, a figure which becomes 40% if we consider only the trade of the United States and the movement in the Pacific.
But at the moment 264 ships are stranded awaiting passage authorization as the rainy season between May and November has not been consistent this year, while water evaporation has intensified.
The Panama Canal is the only major shipping route that depends on fresh water, with more than 190 million liters needed for each ship to pass through.
The canal’s locks depend on reservoirs, but the first half of the year was the second driest in nearly a century in the canal’s watershed, according to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The drought even prompted Panama to declare a state of environmental emergency in May.
The lack of water also prompted the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to cut traffic and in May set a 13.4 meter depth limit for the largest ships, limiting the amount of cargo they can carry.
The authority has also limited daily crossings to just 32 vessels since late July, down from an average of 36.
This has contributed to a 16% increase in the number of ships waiting to pass through, according to marine trade tracker MarineTraffic.
