2023-10-31 19:36:00
The Panama Canal Authority announced that the daily maximum number of bookable passages will initially be reduced to 25 starting Friday. There are currently 32, following a previously announced reduction from Wednesday to just 31. But the canal authority warned shipping in its latest warning for even more severe cuts. The booking slots will therefore gradually continue to decrease, from the beginning of February to 18 passages per day. The 80 kilometer long artificial waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific is central to world trade, but is considered a bottleneck.
A severe drought has recently led to restrictions on transit. The draft of the ships was also limited, which resulted in lower loading capacities. The Panama Canal is particularly important for the transport of goods from Asia to the USA. Over 40 percent of containers shipped from Northeast Asia to the U.S. East Coast typically transit through the canal. It also enables faster transport of US goods to Asia and the South American Pacific coast. According to experts, the Panama Canal is less important for the German economy than the Suez Canal.
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