The Panama Canal is running dry, sending global shipping into chaos (again)

In today’s Big Story Podcast, it hasn’t been an easy few years for global shipping — to say the least. From the pandemic to multiple conflicts, to accidents and disasters, getting products from point A to point B has never been less reliable or more expensive. And now a prolonged drought has the Panama Canal operating at about half of its usual capacity.

Mie Højris Dahl is a freelance reporter who wrote about the Panama Canal for Foreign Policy. She says that as bad as the country’s water shortages have been, the situation will likely deteriorate even further in the coming months.

“Right now, the country is heading into dry season, so all through the spring this is only set to get worse,” says Dahl. 

What kind of price hikes or product shortages are at stake here? Is this temporary, or a new normal in the climate era? And if it is a new normal, what other shipping lanes might open as southern ones dry up?