Panama Canal increases daily transits to 27 due to slight improvement in water levels

Starting this Monday, daily ship transits through the Panama Canal after a slight improvement in the levels of the main lake that serves the interoceanic waterway.

The area is immersed in a water crisis due to the severe drought resulting from climate change and aggravated by the El Niño phenomenon.

Under optimal conditions, some 36 ships cross the Panama Canal, which has applied a reduction in transits since July 2023 that left the figure at 22 ships last November and with plans to even take it to 18 in February of this year, forecasts that In the end, they did not materialize due to the improvement in water availability.

Thus, the canal announced this month that it was gradually increasing the daily passage of ships through the Panamax locks (the century-old and smallest ones): of the 24 transits established in January, “two additional slots (26) were added from the 18th. March” and another one (27) is available for scheduled transits starting this Monday.

The highway administration then reported that this “new adjustment” occurred in “response to the current and projected level of Gatun Lake,” one of the two that supplies the Canal, with the objective of “accommodating the growing demand for traffic.”

“There are already signs that there is some rain. (For this reason) we have increased the number of transits per day”declared last week the administrator of the Panama CanalRicaurte Vásquez.

Vásquez explained to the media at that time that “all the indications” received and the reports “from all international meteorological services indicate that the mild La Niña phenomenon (would) possibly begin in the month of March (or) April.”

“There is a greater probability that the intensity of La Niña will increase for the months of July and August”Vásquez added.

“We are calibrating these forecast models, which we are looking at with a 30-day horizon. That is why now, looking at the horizon of the next 30 days, we announce to the industry that there is more space to be able to transit through the Panama Canal,” the administrator noted.

He La Niña phenomenon It is an event of low temperatures and causes severe droughts in the coastal areas of the Pacific, and is the opposite of El Niño (high temperatures).

These estimates would give a possible premature start to the rains in Panamaa country with only two seasons: dry (between December and April, but increasingly longer due to climate change) and rainy (between May and November).

The Panama Canal, through which around 3% of world trade passes and inaugurated in August 1914, is suffering an acute water crisis due to the prolonged drought that lowered the water levels of the main lake that serves that route.

The current crisis derives from the water deficit of the artificial lakes Gatún (1913) and Alhajuela (1935), therefore the administration of the road has already identified projects to guarantee the water resource, but their completion depends on decisions of the Panamanian Government.

As a consequence of this climatic situation, toll revenues are expected to decrease by US$800 million in this fiscal year, as the administrator stated last January to EFE.