Panama Canal sees drought, low-water creating bottleneck of ships
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There Is a Huge Backlog of Ships Waiting to Pass Through the Panama Canal
That headline is from 2015 for these given reasons
If your ship is planning to pass through the Panama Canal anytime soon, be prepared to wait.
Looking at AIS data of the anchorages at both the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the canal, you will see a huge backlog of ships, mostly tankers and cargo ships it seems.
On Thursday, non-booked northbound vessels scheduled to pass through the canal have been waiting at anchor since Oct. 16 and 17. For non-booked southbound vessels, the wait time is even worse. Those vessels arrived on Oct. 14 and 15, seven and eight days ago.
- But we spoke with a canal insider, who said that in his decades of experience he has only seen it like this when there is some other issue going on – not one that’s weather related.
- We’re also told that booking slots, where you actually reserve a specific time and day for a fee, aren’t even available for several days out right now, so even vessels willing to pay extra need to wait several days.
- In fact, we’re told that there are hardly any open slots left and what is available is being auctioned off to the highest bidder for astronomical amounts – hundreds of thousands of dollars, we’re told.
- The ACP says because of the backlog, it has decided to postpone maintenance work and has assigned additional crew members to increase capacity.
- It has also started a temporary reduction in the number of booking slots for certain types of vessels.
WHAT'S this??
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Panama has been working to shake off its reputation as a global haven for shady money and is burnishing its environmental credentials. It is now one of just three countries in the world which is carbon negative, along with Bhutan and Suriname.
Severe drought in Panama hits global shipping industry
- More than 3% of world trade by volume passes through the canal
- “It’s likely to be a continuing problem. It’s going to happen again and again.”
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