Panama Canal springs surprise on Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering had been gearing up for an order book of average-size vessels for next year. Instead, the company got more and more queries about building ships that are longer than the Eiffel Tower.

 

Shipyards are assessing how to build vessels able to carry as many as twenty-thousand 20-foot containers, or 20 million flat-panel televisions, as operators seek to pare fuel costs and emissions.

 

Starting in 2014, larger ships will also be able to sail through a widened Panama Canal to US East Coast ports from Asia, which could save as much as $1,000 per container compared with hauling goods cross-country.

 

Original source: San Francisco Chronicle