Giant cargo ship used to test expanded Panama Canal

Panama

PANAMA has sent a giant Neopanamax-class cargo ship through its canal to test expansion work costing billions of dollars and whose official opening is to be marked with a ceremony later this month.

"The tests are going very, very well. We're pleased," Giuseppe Quarta, head of the Grupos Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) consortium behind the nine-year expansion project, told reporters on Thursday.