DESPITE a decrease in transits through the drought-affected Panama Canal across various shipping sectors, containerships are maintaining their transit levels primarily due to reduced competition from other sectors, reports Ventura, California's gCaptain.
Facing one of the worst droughts in decades, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has been implementing draft and daily transit restrictions since March 2023 to conserve water levels in the canal's watershed, crucial for half of Panama's population.
These restrictions have imposed limitations on the daily usage of the waterway.
Recent monthly data from the ACP reveals a 25 per cent decline in transits in December 2023 compared to October 2023, with only 746 transits as opposed to 1,002.
This marks a significant 42 per cent year-on-year decrease from December 2022's 1,281 transits.
In a reversal of an earlier decision to further reduce daily transits, the ACP increased them to 24 starting this month, up from 22 previously, although still considerably lower than the 35 to 40-plus daily transits before the restrictions last year.
Drewry highlights that containerships have largely avoided lengthy queues and expensive transit auctions at the Panama Canal due to a pre-booking system.
Despite the challenge posed by the increase to 24 daily transits, containerships experienced a drop in per day transits to an average of 7.4 in November and December, down from 8.4 in October.
Nevertheless, Drewry points out that this figure is close to the recent historical average daily transits for containerships, which were 7.7 in Fiscal Year 2022 and 7.6 in Fiscal Year 2023, according to the ACP.
Moreover, containerships' share of total monthly transits rose significantly to 30.6 per cent in December, compared to the previous 19.8 per cent share in the ACP's two preceding fiscal years.
'Effectively, containerships are finding it easier to reserve slots as some other sectors (most obviously dry bulk) continue to vacate the route, even if carriers would like more,' said Drewry.
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Facing one of the worst droughts in decades, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has been implementing draft and daily transit restrictions since March 2023 to conserve water levels in the canal's watershed, crucial for half of Panama's population.
These restrictions have imposed limitations on the daily usage of the waterway.
Recent monthly data from the ACP reveals a 25 per cent decline in transits in December 2023 compared to October 2023, with only 746 transits as opposed to 1,002.
This marks a significant 42 per cent year-on-year decrease from December 2022's 1,281 transits.
In a reversal of an earlier decision to further reduce daily transits, the ACP increased them to 24 starting this month, up from 22 previously, although still considerably lower than the 35 to 40-plus daily transits before the restrictions last year.
Drewry highlights that containerships have largely avoided lengthy queues and expensive transit auctions at the Panama Canal due to a pre-booking system.
Despite the challenge posed by the increase to 24 daily transits, containerships experienced a drop in per day transits to an average of 7.4 in November and December, down from 8.4 in October.
Nevertheless, Drewry points out that this figure is close to the recent historical average daily transits for containerships, which were 7.7 in Fiscal Year 2022 and 7.6 in Fiscal Year 2023, according to the ACP.
Moreover, containerships' share of total monthly transits rose significantly to 30.6 per cent in December, compared to the previous 19.8 per cent share in the ACP's two preceding fiscal years.
'Effectively, containerships are finding it easier to reserve slots as some other sectors (most obviously dry bulk) continue to vacate the route, even if carriers would like more,' said Drewry.
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