An upgrade to the Panama Canal in 2014 could provide a major boost to Central Ohio’s logistics industry.

In preparation for the upgrade, the United States has begun enhancing infrastructure to better handle larger ships, increased volume of shipping traffic, and increased use of rail to transport cargo from east coast ports to Midwest logistics hubs.

The Panama Canal is one of two inland routes used to ship products from Asia to the east coast. Currently the canal is limited in the size of ocean carriers it can handle. Upgrades to the canal in 2014 will add an additional lane to the current two lanes and also boost the size of ships it can support from a maximum of 4,800 containers to a maximum of 8,000 containers. These upgrades are expected to increase the volume of cargo coming into east coast ports, such as Norfolk, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina.

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