Panama City, Jun 11 (EFE).- The container ship Cosco Shipping Panama, which on June 26 will be the first to pass through the expanded Panama Canal, set sail Saturday from the port of Piraeus, Greece, on its way to this Central American country, official sources said.

Canal administrator Jorge Luis Quijano, currently in Greece with a delegation of the Panama Canal Authority, or ACP, had the chance to meet the ship’s captain, Jude Rodrigues, and his crew, before the container ship makes the 14-day crossing, the ACP said.

“It was great being able to meet the captain and crew and see the quality of the team that will be piloting the ship through the waters of the canal together with our personnel who will be aboard that day from very early on,” Quijano said in an official statement.

The New Panamax vessel, 48.25 meters (158 feet) abeam and 299.98 meters (984 feet) long, was launched in January this year, and will carry through the canal its maximum cargo of 9,472 TEUs (containers).

On inauguration day, the ship will start in the morning in the locks of Agua Clara on the Caribbean side, and will end in the locks of Cocoli on the Pacific in the afternoon. The rest of the crossings will continue the next day, the statement said.

The expansion of the canal, with an initial cost of $5.25 billion, was begun in 2007 in order to provide the world with greater transport options and better maritime service, canal authorities said.

The widening of the Panama Canal, through which 6 percent of the world’s trade passes, allows ships to pass through carrying three times more cargo than was previously possible. EFE