CHINESE shipyards have been urged to tap an opportunity thrown up by a project to widen the Panama Canal to design new vessels which use the waterway, according to an industry executive.
Work on the US$5.25-billion expansion started in September, and is expected to be completed in August 2014, in time for the centenary of the opening of the world's most famous waterway.
The expansion will create a third set of larger locks of 55 meters wide against 33.5 meters now, and once completed is expected to result in the most cost-effective way to move freight in and out of the United States Midwest.
Shipyards in China, which is the largest exporter of sea-borne goods to the United States and a rising shipbuilding power, should quickly take advantage of this new opportunity, said David Tozer, business manager for container ships at Lloyd's Register, a global ship classification society.
A study by Lloyd's Register and Ocean Shipping Consultants has identified potential designs for "New Panamax" container ships with load capacities of at least 12,500 twenty-foot equivalent units but still capable of sailing through the canal, post 2014.
"Any owner who has an NPX ship in 2014 will make a lot of money. They will be ahead of the market," Tozer told Shanghai Daily in a recent interview. "To order an NPX vessel for delivery in 2014, you need to consider the design now. This is a real opportunity for China's yards."
The cost of moving goods in an NPX-sized vessel will be about eight percent higher than by ultra-large container ships with capacities of up to 14,000 TEU, Tozer said. But ULCS will not be able to pass through the expanded waterway.
"The Chinese ship designers need to be considering NPX design standards (now)," he said. "They should be speaking to ship owners and the Panama Canal Authority about the possibility of (building and designing) bigger ships."