Q24N (EFE) The Panama Canal announced that starting August 5, daily ship transits will increase to 35, thanks to the arrival of the rains and after the restrictions implemented since last year due to the severe drought.
Under optimal conditions, the average daily crossing through the canal, which connects the Atlantic with the Pacific, is between 35 and 36 ships, but the seasonal drought of 2023, longer than usual and enhanced by the El Niño phenomenon, forced this figure to be gradually reduced, which stood at 22 in November, without ever reaching the worst expected scenario: 18 transits per day last February.
In a notice to its customers published this Wednesday, the Canal details the “increase in the number of Neopanamax reservation slots”, the largest ships that cross through the operational expansion since mid-2016, as well as the “increase in transit draft and the transit reservation system.
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This “based on the current and projected level of Gatún Lake”, the artificial reservoir built in 1913 and which, together with another much smaller one, Alhalueja (1935), supplies the interoceanic waterway, the only freshwater waterway in the world, and who have benefited from the arrival of the rainy season after the severe drought that began last year.
Thus, starting next July 11, the depth of the canal will be raised to 48 feet (14.6 meters), and from August 5, daily transits will be 35, up from the current 32.
“The recent rainfall in the Canal basin has made it possible to further increase the maximum draft allowed in the Neopanamax locks. Therefore, with immediate effect, the maximum authorized draft for vessels (…) will be 14.33 meters (47 feet) and, effective July 11, 2024, the maximum authorized draft will be 14.63 meters (48 feet),” says the notice issued this Wednesday.
The increase in transits is gradual, since as of July 11 there will be 33 daily and from July 22 there will be 34, according to the notice issued by the administration of the interoceanic waterway, through which nearly 3% of world trade passes.
The traffic restrictions applied since the middle of last year would cause a decrease of 800 million dollars in the canal’s toll income in this fiscal year, according to what the Canal administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez, told EFE last January.
The Government of Panama reported last Monday that JP Morgan “improved the growth forecast for the gross domestic product (GDP) of Panama for this year, raising it from 0.5% to 3.5% year-on-year,” among others. reasons, due to the gradual increase in transits through the canal.
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The Panamanian waterway serves more than 180 maritime routes connecting 170 countries and reaching some 1,920 ports around the world.
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