Panama Canal rules out impact on its operations due to accident in Baltimore

The Panama Canal regretted this Tuesday the accident of the container ship Dali against a bridge in baltimoreUnited States, which left at least six disappearances, while ruling out that this event has a “significant impact on routine operation” of the interoceanic waterway.

“From the Panama Canal we regret the loss of human life as a result of the accident that occurred in Baltimore, United States. Although it affects the supply chain of containerized cargo and other merchandise, what happened does not have a significant impact on the routine operation of the Panama Canal.“said the Canal administration in a brief message sent to the press.

“It is expected that the actions of shipping companies in this situation will be to reassign containerized cargo from the port of Baltimore to other ports on the east coast of the United States (Norfolk, New York/New Jersey). We continue to evaluate the situation in close contact with our clients”, adds the note.

Early this Tuesday, the freighter Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing that crossing, built in 1977 and through which some 35,000 vehicles cross a day, to almost completely collapse.

The alert given by the ship itself allowed the entry of vehicles into the area to be stopped and lives were saved, but there were workers on site who were repairing the asphalt: two were injured, one of them seriously, and six others are still missing. .

According to the first indications, the cargo ship had lost propulsion, a problem that apparently was already ongoing, since an inspection last June in the Chilean port of San Antonio found problems in the “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” from the Singapore-flagged container ship.

Even the Dali, which has a gross cargo capacity of 95,000 tons and is 300 meters long, hit the dock in the port of Antwerp (Belgium) in 2016, according to data from Vessel Finder.

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, today ordered the reconstruction of that bridge, the largest in the state of Maryland with a length of 2,632 meters and which rose to fame in the past as the setting for the police series “The Wire.” He also called for reopening the now-blocked port as soon as possible.

The Panama Canal connects 180 maritime routes that reach 1,920 ports in 170 countries, and around 3% of world trade passes through it.

The main routes served by the Panama Canal are the East Coast of the United States-Asia; US East Coast-West Coast of South America, and Europe-West Coast of South America.

The United States is the main user of the interoceanic canal, which the North American country built and also administered between 1914 and December 31, 1999, when it transferred it to the Panamanian State.