Panama, Chinese maxinave inaugurates the new channel that revolutionizes … – The Messenger

The work – inaugurated in the presence of Panamanian President Varela who called in the Central American country heads of state and governments of many nations – is from the engineering point of view, and not only that, the most ambitious ever made in the world. And it is very ‘made in Italy’. the sluice gates constructed of Cimolai, the technological heart of the project are in fact Italian that allowed unexpectedly beat the US competition to renew what has been done by the US at the beginning of the century. It is the operating software and many of the special materials of construction, is the operation guide of the Italian Salini Impregilo that in 48% of the construction consortium to equal the Spanish Sacyr, just over two years ago unlocked the dispute with Panama. At least to complete the work.

Now for international arbitration on nearly three billion overruns certificates, whose first results gave reason to the builders, it will take years, but in the meantime the revolution of the world’s maritime trade began. The new canal locks will be able to pass ships with a load of up to 14 thousand containers against the current maximum of 4,400. To build them have changed the arsenals over the world, while the Pacific and Atlantic ports – especially the US – have already made giant works to accommodate the new boats, with an induced generated about 20 times the cost of the work, so more than 100 billion dollars.

Some changes also for Italy? “Yes, if you will grasp”, they answer the industry. The widening of the Panama Canal coincides with that of Suez, and could put the Mediterranean at the center of many routes. Today in the ‘mare nostrum’ transits 19% of world traffic by volume and 25% by route. Italy is third in Europe for goods traffic with 473 million tons and the first in EU countries in the short range. In twenty years the number of containers handled in the 30 largest ports in the Mediterranean increased by 425% with an average rate of 21% per annum. But they serve novelties, both in port authorities both in infrastructure: Gioia Tauro and Genoa handle over two million containers, but they are far from direct competitors Valencia, Algeciras and Port Said. All other Italian airports are under one million containers per year.