Cargo ships forced to wait at the Panama Canal are causing international items to take longer to get to shelves. 

Lack of rain in South America has caused the water level to go down so much that there's nearly a 50% reduction of the capacity of the canal.

“Less ships can make it through everyday from about 36 cargo ships a day to about 32. It also means a lot of those cargo ships can’t be as loaded because they don't want to hit the bottom,” Steve Stivers, President & CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce said. 

Most big box stores get some of their products from these ships. 

“For us it's going to be things on shelves like Walmart and Target,” Bob Badowski, Westminster College Chair of the School of Business said. “Mostly appliances are going to be much harder to get.”

Most small stores local to the Mahoning Valley like Sparkle and Rulli Brothers won’t be affected because they get most of their products from the United States, Canada or Mexico - with the exception of a few.

“There are some imported items whether it’s coffees or chocolates and dates and maybe some things that would come from South America or Central America or even from the far east that would use the canal,” Mike Rulli, Owner of Rulli Brothers said about items in his store.  

In order for stores to avoid empty shelves some cargo ships will change ports.

“(They will) come around South America and take weeks longer and cost more in fuel cost so that will likely raise prices,” Stivers said. 

Even though it's only August, products for Christmas are on these ships - and that’s when slight price hikes could potentially hit. 

“We’re not talking about ten percent price hikes on a good or service, we're probably talking about a few percent,” Stivers said. 

And if no rain falls in the canal - it could get worse. 

“If this continues on for an extended period of time then those prices are just going to tick up even further,” Badowski said.  

This isn’t the only issue cargo ships have faced. In 2021, a cargo ship got stuck in the Suez Canal causing shipments to be delayed for several days. 

The U.S also faced a shortage of products during Covid. 

“Pharmaceuticals and the personal protective equipment, PPE, like masks ... needed to come from China and China was holding a lot of those goods,” Stivers said. 

With all of the issues stores and shippers have faced -  this may push companies to manufacture more products in America or get them from places like Mexico instead of China. 

“That’s part of the solution, long-term, is (to) make a little more stuff here in America,” Stivers said. 

However, if companies want to continue to import internationally they will have to stick to cargo ships to help their bottom line.

“It’s just so economical right now to put everything on a ship and send it over and the cost of items would drastically increase if we would start using other methods of transportation like airplanes,” Badowski said.