The drought that is extending over the months due to the El Niño climate phenomenon continues to limit transit capacity in the Panama Canal with a further impact on global foreign trade already in crisis due to Houthi attacks against merchant ships in the Red Sea.
According to the estimates of the Canal Authority (ACP) where 40% of the world's containers transit, if the climatic conditions do not improve the risk is that of having to further reduce daily transit to a minimum of 18 ships compared to the current 24 and the 32 of 2023 with losses estimated between 500 and 700 million dollars in 2024.
Transit restrictions, experts warn, are having a direct impact on shipping costs and consequently on global commodity prices and inflation, particularly in the United States, where it is 40% of the container traffic that passes through the Canal is directed.
While companies look for alternatives and face ever higher expenses - as in the case of the Danish giant Maersk which in January was forced to build a "land bridge" - the climate and water crisis, experts underline, no longer even appear as an isolated problem, but part of a series of challenges facing global trade, including geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
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