Panama Canal at peak capacity
The Panama Canal is operating at full tilt—handling about 36–38 vessels daily—as carriers reroute traffic around the closed Strait of Hormuz, squeezing capacity and raising delay risk for Caribbean‑bound cargo. That surge is driven by diverted LNG and container shipments and increases the odds of lead‑time extensions for resort imports. (reuters.com)
Panama Canal Authority operational guidance lists Panamax lock throughput at 34–36 vessels per day and Neopanamax capacity at 9–11 vessels per day, numbers that vary with vessel mix, draft restrictions and lock maintenance schedules. (pancanal.com: ) Fiscal-year 2025 transit volumes rose 19.3% to 13,404 passages, with 3,342 Neo‑Panamax and 10,062 Panamax transits and total canal revenue of $5.7 billion for the year. (seatrade-maritime.com: ) The Strait of Hormuz campaign recorded 21 confirmed attacks on merchant ships as of March 12, 2026, and tanker traffic initially fell by about 70% with more than 150 vessels anchoring outside the strait to avoid risk. (wikipedia.org: ) Persian Gulf port suspensions and carrier booking restrictions followed the strait closure, prompting re‑routing of energy and other cargoes and creating fresh demand for Panama transits as an alternate passage. (maritimenews.com: ) Panama Canal authorities have started reallocating slots toward LNG flows, moving from roughly four LNG transits per month to offering one LNG slot per day amid the January–March seasonal lull in Asia‑to‑Americas container sailings, according to canal statements quoted in recent reporting. (economictimes.indiatimes.com: ) Regional carriers and forwarders report elevated yard utilisation and waiting times across Central American and Caribbean terminals — for example DP World’s Caucedo terminal was cited at about 91% yard utilisation with local waiting times of roughly 2–6 hours — and operators are prioritising reefers and using FIFO rules to manage constrained capacity. (mykn.kuehne-nagel.com: ) The Panama Canal Authority raised the maximum allowable draft to 50 feet (15.25 m) and added an extra transit slot effective 1 September 2024 as an operational lever to sustain higher throughput, while real‑time congestion tools such as Portcast’s weekly snapshots (week of 8–14 March 2026) and carrier advisories from lines like Seaboard Marine warn that multi‑day schedule variability and port congestion in the region remain active risks. (icis.com: portcast.io: seaboardmarine.com: )
