The opening of the new Panama Canal locks in 2016 will result in transshipment activity expected to jump by double digits, followed by longer-term annual growth of five percent, Drewry Maritime Research said in the latest issue of its Container Insight Weekly.

This growth pattern would increase Panama's Pacific transshipments and gateway cargo to six million TEU in 2014, Drewry said. Panama's Pacific terminals now handle 3.4 million TEU a year, including 3.1 million TEU of transshipments.

Most of the increased transshipment volume will be handled on Panama's Pacific coast, where terminals have announced expansion plans that would more than double the current annual capacity of five million TEU.

The planned Corozal container terminal at the canal's Pacific end would have annual capacity of 5.2 million TEU when both phases are completed, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.

Furthermore, Hutchison last year announced plans to spend US$110 million to increase its existing terminal's capacity to five million TEU by next year. PSA's new 20-year concession for the Rodman terminal enables eventual expansion to 1.8 million TEU, up from 450,000.

The expanded Hutchison and PSA terminals theoretically could accommodate six million TEU a year, and the first phase of the Corozal project could further boost the terminals' annual capacity to 8.2 million TEU, well enough to meet expected demand during the next decade, Drewry said.

"There is also a wild card in the pack as well - the potential Nicaragua canal which, if built, would inevitably impact on both Panama Canal vessel transits and regional container transshipment activity," Drewry said. The Nicaragua project envisions transshipment ports on the Atlantic and Pacific ends.

The Nicaragua canal would handle ships of up to 20,000 TEU, compared with 13,000 to 14,000 TEU for the new Panama locks. The Nicaragua project is clouded by scepticism, largely because of the project's estimated $50 billion cost, which would be 10 times that of the new Panama locks.