Happy Birthday Panama Canal: Daily Vessel Transits Increase To 36 September

(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama) The Panama Canal
now celebrates 110 years of operations, and is strongly resuming its role in global trade by announcing that starting in September; daily vessel transits will increase to 36.
This was announced by the administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Ricaurte Vásquez, in an interview from the Miraflores locks, where he highlighted on Thursday August 15, that by making 36 transits daily, the operations of the interoceanic route are returning to normal.
Under normal conditions, between 36 and 38 ships transit the waterway per day.
Vásquez reviewed the challenges the Canal has faced since July 2023, when the decision was made to cut transits to manage the water crisis caused by the extension of the dry season and the arrival at that time of the El Niño phenomenon, which extended until March 2024.
The administrator stated
that they were always communicating transparently to customers the decisions that were being made and that priority was given to both the transit and the supply of water for the population, since the water treatment plants that supply water to the capital region are fed by the resources of the
Canal
lakes.

Vásquez pointed out that although 35 daily transits are currently permitted, the reality of the market is that the passage of 34 ships per day has not yet been recorded, because the shipping industry, which is the Canal's client, needs time to readjust and adapt its itineraries.
“We are at 31 effective transits because the industry does not adjust immediately.
It takes time to reschedule its transits and its vessels. Some of them opted for routes that were more reliable even though they were longer and once this availability is achieved in the Canal they begin to adjust and that takes three to four months to occur,” explained the Canal administrator.
In its 110 years of operations, the Canal has faced one of its most severe water crises and is preparing to navigate towards a plan that will guarantee the sustainability of water resources while overcoming new challenges in the international maritime world with the trend towards de-carbonization of transport. A new reservoir on the Indio River
is one of the medium-term solutions to provide more water for the population and relieve pressure on the Canal. This reservoir, which could be ready in 2030 or 2031, will have a water capacity equivalent to 11 daily ship transits.

A census was started last week in the area to record the number of residents and the economic activities taking place there. The project, together with the cost of relocation and social care, would have a value of $1.6 billion.
“People come first. We want to achieve social consensus with the community of Río Indio,” he said, noting that they are keeping an eye on all the communities that are in the Canal's watershed.
The Canal administrator said that although this specific crisis is happening with the drought that was recorded between 2023 and 2024, they cannot be neglected because it is estimated that there will be another El Niño around the year 2028.
"We know that a similar phenomenon will happen again in a few years and we have to be prepared for it," he said, noting that one of the lessons learned from the recent water crisis was how to optimize the level of load moved by each cubic meter of water.
Ricaurte Vásquez explained that they are implementing a new quota reservation plan, through which shipping companies can reserve up to a year of transit.
“That gives us and our clients certainty,” he added.

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