Over 100 ships clogged outside Panama Canal

The Panama Canal Authority (PCA) has opted to limit the daily

transits in response to rising congestion.

The prolonged dry season is a natural phenomenon that affects many regions,

including the Panama Canal, the PCA has therefore worked to adapt its operations

to ensure a competitive flow of vessels.

The standard offering of reservations comprises 23 booking slots for the

Panamax locks. Under Condition 2, in scenarios involving a substantial reduction

in capacity (such as lane closures for maintenance), the allocation is reduced

to 16 booking slots.

Meanwhile, under Condition 3, as currently being implemented, the booking

slots are limited to 14 in total (comprising 10 slots for super-sized vessels

and 4 slots for regular-sized vessels).

“This allows us to manage congestion and ensures ships en route or in

queue, which haven’t secured reservations, can still transit in competitive time

frames,” the PCA said in a statement.

“It should be noted that transits through the Neopanamax locks maintain

their regular average of 10 transits per day, so these have not been impacted by

the measure.”

The PCA has underscored the precise congestion statistics at both canal

entrances. This comes as a response to deceptive reports that have recently

asserted a lineup of 200 ships.

“The Panama Canal believes in transparency and permanent communication”,

reads its latest statement.

“We inform in advance of the measures that may influence our customers’

operations so that they can make business decisions, ensuring the sustainability

and continuity of world trade.”

As of 22 August, the authority reported 120 vessels waiting for transit.

For this month, the average waiting time for unbooked transits is between 9 and

11 days.

This announcement comes less than two weeks after the PCA announced a

temporary restriction on the number of new reserved passage slots to alleviate

the bottleneck of ships awaiting transit without reservation.