The drought period that forced the Panama Canal Authority to decrease the number of ships ' transits in the Central American waterway is obviously reflected on the volume of traffic of goods passed through the canal. Due to the heavy drop in rainfall, the authority has limited the number of daily transits of ships, reducing them to 18, while also reducing the maximum catch of ships that can cross the Neopanamax locks, measures that are feared may be further tightened after an October 2023 that recorded the lowest level of monthly rainfall since 1950, precipitation that was 41% lower than the expected levels.

In the first nine months of 2023 traffic in the Panama Canal was 9,317 ocean vessels carrying 210.7 million tons of cargo, with decreases of -3.3% percent and -3.2% percent respectively on the same period last year. In the only third quarter of this year, ocean vessel transits were 3,025, with a -4.4% percent decline in the corresponding period of 2022, vessels on board had loads of 67.2 million tonnes (-8.4%).