date:Jun 27, 2016
en added, allowing ships carrying 13,000 containers to go through, compared to vessels with a 5000 container capacity.
The nine-year project took 30,000 workers and incurred a bill of $7.4 billion.
It will be formally opened on Sunday, when a 94,000 tonne Chinese-owned ship, the COSCO Shipping Panama, will travel through the expanded waterway.
Projects like this matter to New Zealand, which sends over $40bn worth of commodities overseas each year, 97 percent by ship.
At present, some New Zeal