Some ships still too big for widened Panama Canal

A year after a new and expanded Panama Canal opened to the world's shipping industry, for the world's largest oil tankers the famed 48-mile route still remains too small.

According to a report by the research firm Morningstar, "the impact of the expansion on energy shipments so far has varied by commodity."

"Flows of liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, and liquefied natural gas, or LNG, traveling south through the canal from the U.S. Gulf to South America and Asia have increased substantially. At the same time, transits of crude oil and refined products through the canal have declined," wrote Sandy Fielden of Morningstar.

Source: Houston Chronicle