In view of the end of the dry season in the region, The Panama Canal Authority took stock of the Restrictions on maritime traffic in the important waterway introduced due to the limited quantity of of water in the canal and in the reservoirs that feed it caused by the low level of rainfall. The lack of rainfall has made it essential to reduce the number of ships in transit and, if the last The average monthly number of units was 36 per year. ships that have crossed the canal, including 32 neoPanamax vessels, compared to 39 in 2022 (36 neoPanamax), the number of transits has increased significantly reduced at the end of 2023, with 28 average transits daily in December, including 24 of neoPanamax ships. The Autoridad del Canal de Panamá has highlighted that 2023 is It was the third driest year in the region since Panama has begun to record the level of rainfall more than 140 years ago.

After a further reduction in transits at the beginning of 2024, The Panamanian Authority pointed out that, based on the level of of the waters in Gatun Lake and the water management adopted at the beginning of March announced the introduction of additional tranches of transits that are increased to 27 ships per day. The Authority pointed out that with the recent rains and the measures used to Saving water, the situation is changing.

In communicating an improvement in the outlook, the authority specified that it is not true that there is currently a large number of ships waiting to pass through the canal, congestion that would cause a bottleneck in the supply chain maritime. The Authority pointed out that currently the number of of ships waiting to transit is about 50 units, equal to that expected under current conditions with 27 transits available per day, and that most of the ships waiting are in possession of a transit reservation and usually arrive before the allotted date to cross the canal, It is customary for ships to refuel before start your journey.

In addition, the authority pointed out that this year the weather average waiting time for ships arriving without a reservation is be just under 2.5 days, well below 3.6 days recorded between January and March 2023 and 3.8 days registered in the same period in 2022.

With regard to the outlook for the coming months, the authority explained that the forecast points to the end of this month the beginning of the rainy season that will continue in the months and this should make it possible to loosen up the restrictions on transit, making it possible to achieve a complete normalization in 2025 reaching 36 transits Daily.