Grandpa Murkel can give you better numbers than me but the expansion of the Panama canal is supposed to reduce shipping costs to the EU as well as the east coast of the Americas.
A lot of people forget that it was in 1812 that the Duke of Wellington took one look at the logistics and said the war of 1812 was unwinnable. Kututzov on his death bed pardoned the tsar for interfering with Kututzov's conduct of the war and pointed out Russia never would in 1813. That was when the banner was passed.