Ship Pays Record $4 Million to Skip Panama Canal Queue

Big ships carry food, toys, and fuel across the oceans.

Many of them go through the Panama Canal, a water road that lets ships cross quickly between two big oceans.

Lately, that road is very crowded, and ships have to wait about ten days for their turn.

One very big ship paid four million dollars just to go ahead of the other ships.

That is like paying a huge amount of money to skip a very long line.

The trouble is happening for two reasons.

A war far away has closed some other sea routes, so more ships want to use the Panama Canal.

Also, dry weather has made the water in the canal lower, so the canal will soon limit how deep ships can sit in the water.

Even rivers in Europe, like the Rhine, are running low, which makes moving goods harder.

All of this can make the things we buy more expensive.