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THE Panama Canal Authority (ACP), together with Asia-US container trade, appear to be coping well with this year's water shortages that have described as a "unprecedented challenge¡±, reports New York's FreightWaves.
The reality is that Panama Canal constraints have yet to affect American consumers.
Data doesn't point to a crisis, and going forward, the inherent flexibility of the supply chain allows for alternatives should Panama's drought persist.
The ACP has reduced daily transits as the maximum ship draft has declined to 44 feet. The intention is to lower average transits from 36 to 32 per day, paring transits via the original Panamax locks from 26 to 22 and maintaining transits via the newer, larger neopanamax locks at 10 per day (containerships serving the US use the neopanamax locks).
There's no evidence yet of the effect of the extended dry season in the ACP's statistics on monthly average transits, which are driven by both demand and canal restrictions.
The average number of daily neopanamax ships transiting last month - at a time when vessel queues were rising - was higher than in July 2022 and July 2021, at 9.9 per day. The average number of total ships transiting this July, 33.4, was on par (within one ship per day) with transits in the same month over the past two years.
The average waiting time in August for all ships transiting from the Pacific to the Atlantic was 11.5 days, up more than five-fold from June. August's waiting time from the Atlantic to the Pacific was 9.7 days, more than quadruple June's average.
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