Posted on 02/14/2011 11:26:43 AM PST by Oakeshott
Colombia has announced it is negotiating with China to build an alternative to the Panama Canal.
The proposed transport route is intended to promote the flow of goods between Asia and Latin America.
The plan is to create a "dry canal" where the Pacific port of Buenaventura would be linked by rail, across Colombia, to the Atlantic Coast.
Trade between Colombia and China has increased from $10m in 1980 to more than $5bn last year.
The announcement came from the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, who told the Financial Times that the project was "a real proposal... and it is quite advanced".
China has been increasing its involvement across Latin America to feed a growing need for raw materials and commodities.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
what is the likely outcome in regards to America? I know obamanation is not interested in this, but I am.
I’d prefer an alternative Ulster.
Intersting, but that would be a lot of loading and unloading
of freight containers.
There once was a proposal to build a canal across Nicaragua........
Isn’t “dry canal” an oxymoron?
It’s a rail line between ports on opposite coasts. Ships would have to be unloaded, contents loaded onto trains, and then the process reversed on the other side.
Could be a competitor to the Panama Canal, but the terminology in the article is odd.
It’s called a portage. They did it in ancient Corinth. Unload, transport, reload.
Back when the Panama Canal was built they didn’t handle freight the same way, now it is always shipped in shipping containers that are equally well packed on trains or boats with no modification needed.
Plus this also allows China to send some of their shipments to South America and Europe at the same time for a great part of their journey.
The rail line would have exclusive right of way for this traffic. Gotta' be dirt cheap!
It should be the US negotiating to build the canal, not China.
No wonder why the Free Trade Communists were pushing a US Free Trade deal with Colombia....they are in cahoots with Communist China!
Wonder if this means the USA gets back the Panama Canal from the Communist Chinese? Knowing the Free Trade Communists....they would let the Communist Chinese keep it
“Intersting, but that would be a lot of loading and unloading of freight containers.”
This is done right now with US Railroads. Container ships dock at the Port of LA or Seattle, then unload their containers onto doublestack RR cars. Those trains are then driven by UP or BNSF and handed off to East Coast RR’s (CSX or Norfolk Southern) to bring to east coast ports. These items are then loaded on another container vessel to transport to Europe.
The proposed dry canal is called “break bulk” - and the practice was largely phased out 100 years ago due to high labor costs - the reason ships are attractive is the efficiency of labor and fuel once all is loaded. The most expensive parts are the loading and unloading. Add one more cycle of loading/unloading and you may as well just go around the long way.
Intersting, but that would be a lot of loading and unloading
of freight containers.
Actually.....that is not an issue. Most of the containers used in shipping now can be put on a boat, a truck, a train...with only lifting the container to and from the mode of transport.
Next time you see a freight train....notice how most of the containers look like truck trailers....and note how many are Communist Chinese
Columbia is not the most peaceful of places.... this scheme can’t work unless the tracks were absolutely secure; and I can see rebels targeting the tracks and the trains on them.
I doubt that this will happen. Too much time loading and unloading and the idea that they would load another ship immediately on the other side is not a real possibility.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.