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The Panama Canal truly entered the big-ship era the week of May 8 when the largest vessel to date — a vessel from Asia that is as long as the Eiffel Tower is high and 158 feet wide — transited the expanded canal en route to the United States.

Chinese state firms have expressed an interest in developing land around the Panama Canal, the chief executive of the vital trade thoroughfare said, underlining China's outward push into infrastructure via railways and ports around the world.

The Panama Canal's recent expansion will create economic opportunities for South Texas but also pressures ports to step up improvements to their infrastructure, a panel of transportation industry experts said Aug. 18.

Initial containership traffic through the expanded Panama Canal is averaging about one larger vessel per day during a ramp-up period that should be followed by exponential growth in the months and years ahead.

PortMiami officially joined the Neopanamax era July 9, when the MOL Majesty — a vessel too big to fit through the original Panama Canal — became the first ship to arrive at the port after transiting the newly expanded canal.

BOGOTA, Colombia — A Chinese freighter laden with nearly 9,500 metal cargo containers transited the expanded Panama Canal on June 26, inaugurating the interoceanic waterway and opening a new era in global trade.

The North Carolina State Port Authority is nearing completion of infrastructure improvements designed to prepare the Port of Wilmington for larger ships traveling through the new locks at the Panama Canal.

Nine years of construction work, at a cost of more than $5 billion, have equipped the Panama Canal with a third set of locks and deeper navigation channels, crucial improvements that will double the isthmus’s capacity for carrying cargo between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Nearly a decade in the making, the expansion of the Panama Canal is expected to be ready for commercial traffic in late spring.