By PortalPortuario Editorial/Agencia Prensa Latina
@PortalPortuario
In September, according to the report of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP)the number of transits along the route fell. The interoceanic route was used by 9,936 ships, while in the same period last year 12,638 did so.
Limited navigation as a consequence, above all, of the prolonged dry season due to climate change and the restrictive measures adopted, could be affecting the behavior of this route, through which six percent of global trade passes, according to these studies.
The ships that carried out the most traffic were chemical tankers and bulk carriers, followed by container ships, gas carriers, vehicle carriers, refrigerated vessels, tankers, general cargo, passengers and liquefied natural gas.
To continue improving transit, the Panama Canal restored daily crossings to 35 ships starting last August, after the normalization caused by the rains when the level of the Alajuela and Gatún lakes rose, affected by climatic variations that caused a prolonged drought. in 2023.
In addition, the canal entity announced that starting this month of October the Canal will implement the new Long-Term Quota Allocation methodology for all market segments, except for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). .
The introduction of that method, as part of the reservation system, was developed to increase transit security and flexibility for its customers.
An intense drought due to the El Niño phenomenon forced the ACP since 2023 to take drastic measures to reduce the draft of vessels and reduce daily crossings from 38 to 22, which with the arrival of the rainy season becomes more flexible.
According to official statistics, for every ship that crosses the route, about 200 million liters of fresh water are dumped into the sea.
Another option to address the lack of fresh water for their operations led experts to foresee new sources, hence the construction of reservoirs in the basin, the most suitable in the Indio River, for which they carry out surveys with the communities to see the impact that this work would cause, since more than two thousand people would have to be relocated.
