With the Strait of Hormuz choked by war, the Panama Canal reaps the benefits

With fuel and freight prices skyrocketing as war chokes the Strait of Hormuz, the Panama Canal is seeing more business than usual.

The canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at a narrow point between North and South America, is receiving a “slight increase” in vessels, according to the Panama Canal’s deputy administrator, Ilya Espino de Marotta.

“The latest thing we’ve seen is an increase — a slight increase in the number of transits,” Espino de Marotta explained in a statement to CNN. “Let’s remember that now, with higher fuel prices, the Panama Canal definitely becomes a more attractive route because it’s shorter.”

At roughly 50 miles long, the Panama Canal is less than half the length of the 120-mile Suez Canal in Egypt.might be outgunned and outspent by the US and Israel, but it has one major advantage — its control over the Strait of Hormuz.

By attacking ships navigating the narrow waterway, Iran has effectively shut the route through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei gave no sign of relenting, warning in his first purported message, that the strait will remain closed as a “tool of pressure.”

While the strait remains almost entirely closed to Western-aligned shipping traffic, Iranian oil is still passing through, according to several marine intelligence trackers, underlining Tehran’s control of it.#