Panama boosts transpacific trade by sanctioning bigger boxships

A decision to allow wider containerships through the Panama Canal opens the lock gates to even bigger vessels on a key transpacific trade.

It continues a trend illustrated by this month’s launch of an OCEAN Alliance service, Manhattan Bridge, which uses larger ships on trades between Asia and the US East Coast (USEC).

Manhattan Bridge is deploying vessels of 14,000 teu on its service via the Panama Canal, replacing smaller ships of 8,000 teu which had previously traded to the eastern seaboard of the US on a round-the-world service via Suez.