Panama transit turns geopolitical

A reported Chinese order for Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company to quit Panama Canal port operations has turned a shipping chokepoint into a live geopolitical fight. (uk.finance.yahoo.com) Reuters, citing a Financial Times report on April 15, said China’s state planner told the two carriers in a meeting last month to withdraw immediately from Balboa and Cristóbal, the two ports at the canal’s Pacific and Atlantic ends. Reuters said it could not independently confirm the report, and Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company, China’s foreign ministry and the state planner did not immediately respond. (uk.finance.yahoo.com) Panama had already granted temporary 18-month concessions to keep the terminals running, with APM Terminals, a Maersk unit, managing Balboa and Terminal Investment Limited, a Mediterranean Shipping Company unit, handling Cristóbal. Those stopgap arrangements followed Panamanian action against the previous operator, CK Hutchison’s Panama Ports business. (uk.finance.yahoo.com) (scmp.com) The port dispute sits on top of a much larger transaction. CK Hutchison said on March 4, 2025 that a BlackRock-Global Infrastructure Partners-Terminal Investment Limited consortium had reached in-principle agreements to buy its 90 percent interest in Panama Ports Company and a wider portfolio of 43 ports in 23 countries, with an aggregate enterprise value of $22.8 billion. (ckh.com.hk) That deal put Panama’s canal terminals inside a contest between Washington and Beijing over who shapes infrastructure around a route that handles trade between Asia, the Americas and Europe. Reuters also reported in March 2025 that President Donald Trump hailed the BlackRock-led transaction as part of “reclaiming” the canal from what he described as Chinese control. (ckh.com.hk) (yahoo.com) At the same time, energy buyers in Europe are looking at the canal as a supply option, not just a political symbol. Reuters reported on April 15 that buyers including Germany’s Uniper have discussed shipping liquefied natural gas from Canada’s Pacific coast through Panama as part of a longer-term diversification plan. (money.usnews.com) Those talks center on Ksi Lisims LNG, a proposed export terminal in British Columbia backed by Western LNG, Rockies LNG and the Nisga’a First Nation. Reuters said the project is seeking sales contracts ahead of an expected final investment decision this year, while Uniper declined to comment. (money.usnews.com) The canal itself runs on reserved passage windows, like takeoff slots at an airport. The Panama Canal Authority says vessels can book transit slots in advance, and its March 2026 operations summary said maximum sustainable capacity is about 36 to 38 vessels a day across the Panamax and Neopanamax locks. (pancanal.com 1) (pancanal.com 2) That makes any new liquefied natural gas flow through Panama a direct competition for finite space, especially after the canal spent 2023 and early 2024 cutting transits during drought. The authority has since restored booking systems and, from January 4, 2026, reinstated an advanced scheduling framework for liquefied natural gas vessels. (pancanal.com) (nortonlilly.com.pa) So the same waterway is now carrying two pressures at once: governments are trying to shape who runs the ports, and buyers are trying to secure who gets the transit windows. In Panama, control of the shoreline and access to the locks are becoming parts of the same negotiation. (uk.finance.yahoo.com) (money.usnews.com)