Maritime transport is one of the main pillars of Global Cargo System S.A. The canals are essential infrastructure for international trade and maritime shipping.

The Grand Canal Of China

The Grand Canal, also known as Jinghang Waterway, was one of the first canals built and the longest in the world. This canal connects the Yellow River and the Yangtze River from Beijing to Zhejiang. It has also been part of the Unesco World Heritage Site since 2014. The Grand Canal of China is divided into seven sub-canals, which move more than 100 million tons of cargo annually.

The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal is one of the most important artificial waterways in international maritime trade. It is the shortest route connecting Europe and Asia. Thanks to this, each ship saves around 8,000 km by avoiding having to sail around the African continent. Currently, around 10% of the world's global trade flows daily through this canal.

The importance of the Suez Canal for global logistics was demonstrated by the accident of the mega-ship "Ever Given," which blocked the canal for six days and caused severe consequences for the world economy. Since then, the ACS has been working to improve the canal, widen it and deepen it to avoid similar disasters.

The Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is one of the most visited and navigated worldwide. It has an extension of 80 km from Panama City on the Pacific coast, through which more than 12,000 transport and passenger ships pass annually. It has locks that raise and lower the ships as if they were elevators to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake between the canal entrances and through which ships transit from the Caribbean to the Pacific and vice versa. More than 287 million tons of goods are transported each year.

The Kiel Canal

The Kiel Canal in Germany, one of the busiest artificial waterways in the world, surpasses the Suez Canal and Panama. It has a length of 97 km and it is located north of Hamburg and connects the Baltic Sea with the Nordic Sea, through which more than 73 million tons are moved annually.

In short, all these canals are essential for international trade. They are strategic points for world trade and will continue to increase over time. Many countries are trying to develop these infrastructure projects to increase the speed of supply chains, whose objective is economic growth, an essential communication step for the traffic of goods linking countries with civil and maritime infrastructure works reactivating the economy in the world.