A Chinese-owned freighter has been chosen (by a lottery) to be the first vessel to pass through the newly expanded Panama Canal next month, following nine years of work. The 50-mile canal has been widened at an estimated cost of more than seven billion dollars to triple its capacity by allowing bigger bulk carriers to use it.

Panama’s president, Juan Carlos Varela, will host an inauguration ceremony on 26 June, to which 70 foreign heads of state and government have been invited. The expansion work went well beyond its initial 2014 deadline and $5.25 billion budget.

The Andronikos — a brand-new Marshall Islands-flagged container ship — belongs to the China Cosco Shipping Corporation, which is the world’s fourth-largest operator of container ships.

It can carry up to 9,400 containers and is 980ft long and 160ft wide. It will enter the canal from the Atlantic Ocean and cross to the Pacific.

China is the second-biggest user of the canal (after the USA), which provides passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific by cutting across the Central American isthmus.

Around 5% of the world’s maritime traffic uses the canal, with an average of 35-40 ships passing through each day.
The USA built the original canal over 100 years ago and kept strategic control until 1977.