Panama Canal Authority's Aleman at the Helm of New Wave

NEWARK, N.J., March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The expansion of the Panama Canal, due to be completed in 2014, is one of the world's most ambitious engineering projects in decades, an audacious plan that is sending waves of change across the maritime world. The Journal of Commerce in its Cover Story today profiles the leader behind the expansion, Alberto Aleman Zubieta, Panama Canal Authority CEO and administrator. Comprehensive coverage by Senior Editor Peter T. Leach complements an exclusive interview with video and podcast features on www.joc.com.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110314/NY64936 )

Aleman has been the driving force of change for the Panama Canal authority since the canal moved from United States jurisdiction in 1999, leading a change in the local as well as international perception of the canal while expanding profits and traffic to make the $5.25 billion expansion project a reality. "We were not an island in the world. We were part of a world transportation system, and we needed to make that system work," Aleman said. He aims to make Panama the transshipment hub for the hemisphere, with ports on both oceans transshipping cargo up and down the east and west coasts of North and South America as well as the Caribbean.

Additional commentary from Alberto Aleman Zubieta can be found in the Cover Story's accompanying video interview at:

http://www.joc.com/node/424256/

The completion of a new, third, set of locks along the canal -- which will be able to accommodate ships twice the size of the existing locks and with up to three times as many containers -- is the key to the anticipated capacity increase. Viewed from the construction site, it resembles the makings of an entirely new canal alongside the old one, said JOC Senior Editor Peter T. Leach on a recent tour of the soon-to-be opened locks. "That the work is being done while the canal continues to operate ... is all the more remarkable," he said.

More observations from Peter Leach can be found in the recent Editor's Podcast at:

http://www.joc.com/maritime/qa-touring-panama-canal-expansion-project

To view daily news visit www.joc.com. For all media enquires, including article reprints, please contact Editorial Director Paul Page.

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Peter Leach  

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SOURCE The Journal of Commerce