Panama Canal- Suez Canal-Kiel Canal

The panama canal was built in order to reduce the trade route from east to west US from a distance of 21000 Km to 8000 Km. This had a lot of impact in the world of trade. While earlier the duration of the journey would take about 15 days. But with the Panama canal the duration was reduced to almost 10 hours. This would save a substantial amount of money spent on fuel and workers. The speed of trade will increase.

Nearly, half of Panama’s GDP is contributed to by this Canal. Panama charges toll tax. The authority charges almost 90$ per container. Each ship can carry about 5000 containers and on an average 40 ships pass through the panama canal every day. This gives about 18 Million $ per day. Multiply it with 365 to get the revenue generated each year. For cruise ships or passenger ships, they charge 150 $ for each passenger. Average passenger count of a cruise ship is 3000. So for each passenger ship they will generate revenue of about 450K $.

Now, with the expansion of the Panama Canal allowed larger vessels to pass through the canal which can carry more and more containers. So the revenue generated keeps on increasing.

Seeing the opportunity, a Chinese Company decided to make a similar canal close to Panama Canal in Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua will serve as the lake like the Gutan Lake. This would prove to be a heavy competitor for the Panama Canal as it is close to the Panama Canal and also connects the same two oceans like the Panama Canal. But the project was abandoned as the company went bankrupt.

Other canals, like the Suez Canal connects the Red sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The opening of this canal has led to ease of trade with Europe and Asia as the earlier trade route used to go through the south of the African continent. The shortening of trade routes have a great economical impact but also a great environmental impact as well. The Suez canal has helped reduce 44% of the CO2 emissions, thanks to the shorter routes.

Then there is the busiest canal in the world is the Kiel Canal which connects the North Sea and Baltic Sea.

All these are quite important canals in the World Trade. But these canals have a difference with the Panama Canal. Panama Canal has the lock gate systems whereas all the other canals do not have the lock gate system. They are at the same level as the sea.