THE Panama Canal celebrated, last Saturday, five years of operations of the neo-panamax locks, inaugurated with great fanfare on June 26, 2016, reports Seatrade Maritime News, Colchester, UK.
The third set of locks gave the waterway a competitive edge by opening it to the transit of larger vessels, at a time when, especially, containerships had grown significantly in size.
'In these five years, we went from the learning stage to reach the consolidation phase of an efficient and safe service to our customers,' said Panama Canal Authority (ACP) administrator Ricaurte Vasquez.
'None of this would have been possible without the vote of confidence that Panamanians gave the Canal, through the referendum, to execute the expansion programme, and the professionalism and commitment of the Canal's human resources.'
Since the neo-panamax locks' inauguration, 13,700 vessels have transited the Canal, of which 42 per cent were box ships, LPG, 22 per cent, dry bulk carriers, 15 per cent and LNG, 14 per cent. Those 1,640 LNG-vessels had never used the Canal route before. These neo-panamax locks transits represent 28 per cent of all Canal transits [including the panama locks] and 54 per cent of cargo volume and 58 per cent of the total of Canal toll revenues.
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The third set of locks gave the waterway a competitive edge by opening it to the transit of larger vessels, at a time when, especially, containerships had grown significantly in size.
'In these five years, we went from the learning stage to reach the consolidation phase of an efficient and safe service to our customers,' said Panama Canal Authority (ACP) administrator Ricaurte Vasquez.
'None of this would have been possible without the vote of confidence that Panamanians gave the Canal, through the referendum, to execute the expansion programme, and the professionalism and commitment of the Canal's human resources.'
Since the neo-panamax locks' inauguration, 13,700 vessels have transited the Canal, of which 42 per cent were box ships, LPG, 22 per cent, dry bulk carriers, 15 per cent and LNG, 14 per cent. Those 1,640 LNG-vessels had never used the Canal route before. These neo-panamax locks transits represent 28 per cent of all Canal transits [including the panama locks] and 54 per cent of cargo volume and 58 per cent of the total of Canal toll revenues.
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