What If the Panama Canal Ran Dry?

In August, a South Korean gas company paid a record $5.3 million just to skip the queue at the Panama Canal. The reason wasn't a war or a stuck ship. It was rain. We follow one shipping container, Box 28, through a Panama Canal that is running short of fresh water: the locks, the queue, the detours, and the twist nobody talks about, which is that the same lakes supply drinking water to about half of Panama. Last time: What If the Suez Canal Closed for a Year? Chapters 0:00 A $5.3 million queue jump 0:20 Meet Box 28 0:40 How the locks use fresh water 1:00 Day 1: the rain falls short 1:20 Day 30: the queue grows 1:50 Box 28 gets bumped 2:00 Day 100: the long way round 2:20 Day 365: does the canal survive? 2:30 The twist: trade vs taps 2:50 Two canals, one dry summer Sources (every number in this video is checked against at least two reports) $5.3M record auction bid: https://maritime-executive.com/articl... https://www.freightwaves.com/news/5-3... Rainfall 34% below average, transit cuts to 32 per day: https://pancanal.com/wp-content/uploa... https://www.france24.com/en/live-news... 2023 drought (38 to 22 transits a day) and $4M record: https://www.businessinsurance.com/pan... https://maritime-executive.com/articl... Water per transit: https://www.livescience.com/planet-ea... Carrier surcharges: https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/... Suez container traffic: https://container-news.com/suez-canal... Transit totals: https://www.bairdmaritime.com/shippin... Río Indio reservoir: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/pan... Box 28 is an illustrative container used to tell the story; all figures are from the reports above. #PanamaCanal #shipping