Vessel and draft restrictions on the Panama Canal have not affected most shippers \u2014 at least not yet \u2014 but the resulting queue of container ships waiting to transit the canal does bear watching for importers moving goods into the US for the coming fall and winter seasons.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Panama Canal Authority reduced the total number of ships that can pre-reserve a transit to 14 from 19, with that reduction expected to last through Aug. 21. The reduction means fewer than 34 ships can move through the canal in both directions daily, compared with the 34 to 42 it can handle at peak capacity. The reduction in the number of ships followed a move in June by the Authority that reduced the maximum draft for neo-Panamax vessels from 50 feet to 44 feet.<\/p>\n
The latest restrictions come as a drought has reduced the level of Gatun Lake, which provides the fresh water for the canal\u2019s locks, to about 79 feet, compared with a five-year average of 85 feet.<\/p>\n
With the reduction in daily transits and maximum draft \u2014 the latter of which means vessels have to run lighter than usual \u2014 wait times on both sides of the canal are increasing. Port agency WaterFront Maritime Services said in a notice Thursday that neo-Panamax ships are waiting up to 18 days before transiting the canal northward, with similar delays for southbound transits.<\/p>\n
So far, however, those delays have not translated into a significant increase in late arrivals at US East and Gulf coast ports. A cargo operations analyst at the Port of New York and New Jersey who asked not to be identified said there\u2019s been \u201cno impact so far\u201d on vessel schedules to the largest East Coast seaport.<\/p>\n
\u201cVessel capacity utilization is very low right now, so the impact shouldn\u2019t be that significant since there\u2019s capacity to absorb,\u201d the analyst said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a few weeks\u201d before delays are seen at the port.<\/p>\n
A Gulf Coast cargo analyst said the Port of Houston\u2019s draft limits are already below those of the canal, so vessels calling the region\u2019s busiest gateway have not faced cargo limits.<\/p>\n
Details please refer to JOC news.<\/em><\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n Angell, M. (2023, August 11). Panama Canal delays raise risks for shippers, but not yet biting<\/i>. Journal of Commerce. https:\/\/www.joc.com\/article\/panama-canal-delays-raise-risks-shippers-not-yet-biting_20230811.html<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vessel and draft restrictions on the Panama Canal have not affected most shippers \u2014 at least not yet \u2014 but the resulting queue of container ships waiting to transit the canal does bear watching for importers moving goods into the US for the coming fall and winter seasons. On Tuesday, the Panama Canal Authority reduced …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[89,84,83],"class_list":["post-2749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-logistics","tag-maritime","tag-us-ports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2750,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2749\/revisions\/2750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}