The Panama Canal is likely to attract up to 15 percent more tonnage next year after an upgrade which means it can now accommodate gas tankers previously too large to transit, its operator said on Thursday. The expanded canal opened in June, fitted with new locks that allow ships three times bigger than previously to pass through. “We expect to get … more tonnage specifically because of the expansion,” Panama Canal Authority Chief Executive Jorge Quijano told Reuters in an interview at the Danish Maritime Forum conference in Copenhagen. “Hitting those targets will of course depend on the (global) economy … […]