The Panama Canal will not alter transit restrictions until at least April, when the waterway’s operators will again reevaluate the low water levels at the lake feeding the canal.
According to Panama Canal Authority (ACP) deputy administrator Ilya Espino, demand to transit the canal increased further in the wake of ongoing attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, Reuters reported.
“Due to problems at the Red Sea, many people forced to take alternative routes have tried to resort to Panama, but it has not been possible,” Espino told Reuters, adding bulk carriers have been hit hardest.
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Sourcing Journal reached out to the ACP.
Currently, 24 vessels are permitted to transit through the Panama Canal on a daily basis, up from the 22 ships that passed the waterway every day in December and the first half of January. Under normal circumstances, the maximum capacity of daily transits via the Panama Canal was 36 to 38 vessels.
At the time of the announcement, the ACP said the changes were based on improving projected water levels at Gatún Lake, which provides the water to move ships through the Panama Canal’s lock system.
Currently, Panama Canal is in its transitional dry season, which is expected to last through May. Water levels at Gatún Lake as of Wednesday are 81 feet deep, still four feet below the average water levels of 85.1 feet in the five years prior.
If rains arrive in May as expected, the canal plans to progressively increase daily slots with the end goal to return to about 36 vessels per day, according to the Reuters report.
But the rainfall could make or break the decision in the long run. If rains are short of expectations, the authority could apply further restrictions to either daily passage or draft, a vessel’s maximum depth.
The canal currently allows vessels with a maximum draft of 44 feet.
“If rainfall does not begin in May, we would evaluate again whether to cut transit by one or two vessels per day, or to reduce maximum vessel draft to 43 feet,” Espino told Reuters. The ACP is also monitoring evaporation at water reservoirs during the current dry season.
Restrictions were initially implemented last summer as a months-long drought during the country’s May-to-November rainy season led to the record-low water levels at the lake.
The restrictions have thus far resulted in fewer arrivals per day, but ships are wading through the canal waters faster.
Total arrivals per day have decreased from 25.3 in November to 22.2 in January, and has declined every month since September. Canal waters time—the average time it takes a vessel to transit the canal, including waiting time for passage—dipped from 40.7 hours in November to 32.1 hours in January. Without accounting for the wait, in-transit times dipped from 10.4 hours to 9.4 hours in the three-month span.
With the restrictions in place, the queue itself has been dwindling. As of Wednesday, 49 total vessels were in queue to transit the Panama Canal, with 38 already booked and 11 not having made a reservation yet. That number is lower than the 57 vessels in queue on Jan. 11 and the 63 vessels lined up on Dec. 18.
THE Alliance brings back two Panama Canal service lines
In good news for retailers and brands, some ocean carriers appear to be restoring some services that had temporarily moved away from the canal.
THE Alliance, comprised of container shipping firms Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Yang Ming, is bringing back multiple service lines that use the Panama Canal, reversing a prior decision in December to reroute three services through the Suez Canal.
Just two weeks after the decision to shift the services east, Hapag-Lloyd was one of multiple ocean carriers that suspended shipping through the Red Sea due to the recurring Houthi attacks in the waterway.
As of Feb. 11, Panama Canal transits were fully restored on east and westbound sailings on the trans-Pacific to U.S. East Coast “EC2” service.
THE Alliance has also switched its trans-Pacific to U.S. Gulf Coast “EC6” service back to using the Panama Canal rather than via the Cape of Good Hope.
In a recent customer advisory, ONE said other Panama Canal services are also being considered for resumption. The Japanese carrier said it was ending its Panama Canal contingency surcharge on U.S. and Canadian exports “due to operation improvements within the canal.”
