The Panama Canal expansion project currently underway is expected to be completed in 2015. As the route between Gulf of Mexico ports and Asia, soybeans are the number one agricultural commodity that utilizes the canal according to the United Soybean Board (USB). In 2012, 560 million bushels of U.S. soybean exports traveling through the canal representing 52% of the shipments of grain between the Gulf of Mexico and Asia. Nearly 500 ships that can transport 180,000 deadweight tons have been delivered to shippers in anticipation of the expanded canal and another 200 are on order. To read more about what the expansion means to the U.S. soybean industry:
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