Panama port arbitration

A Hong Kong shipping empire and the world’s second-biggest container line are now fighting in London over two docks that sit at the front doors of the Panama Canal. CK Hutchison said on April 8 that its Panama unit had started arbitration against A.P. Moller-Maersk after Maersk’s terminals arm moved into Balboa and Cristobal earlier this year. (gcaptain.com) Those two terminals matter because Balboa faces the Pacific and Cristobal faces the Atlantic, so they bookend the canal on opposite coasts. Until 2026, they were run by Panama Ports Company under a concession dating back to 1997. (gcaptain.com) The immediate trigger was Panama’s court system, not a ship collision or a canal closure. Panama’s Supreme Court invalidated the legal framework behind the old concession in late January 2026, and the government later published that ruling in the official gazette on February 23, clearing the way for a temporary handover. (gcaptain.com) Maersk did not take over the canal itself. Maersk’s ports subsidiary, APM Terminals, took temporary control of terminal operations, which is more like getting the keys to the parking lots and cranes beside an airport runway than owning the runway. (gcaptain.com) CK Hutchison says that handover was not lawful and has opened two separate legal fronts. One claim seeks more than $2 billion from the Panamanian government, and the new case against Maersk will be heard in London under arbitration rather than in a Panamanian court. (bloomberg.com) (gcaptain.com) This is not just a landlord fight over waterfront real estate. A carrier that loses certainty at canal-adjacent terminals can miss a berth window, reshuffle containers, and then knock a whole weekly service off rhythm across the Americas. (pancanal.com) (panamashipservice.com) The Panama Canal already runs on reservations, slot rules, and operating advisories that carriers monitor constantly. The Panama Canal Authority’s 2026 notices include changes to the transit reservation system and long-term slot allocation, which means shipping lines are planning around a moving timetable even before terminal politics are added on top. (pancanal.com) That is why a dispute over who controls Balboa and Cristobal lands far beyond Panama. If a line cannot fully trust who will handle boxes, gates, yard space, and vessel calls at the canal’s edges, it has to build backup plans into contracts, schedules, and inland connections. (maritime-executive.com) (seatrade-maritime.com) The canal remains huge even when traffic is normal. The Panama Canal Authority says it served 170 countries, linked 1,920 ports, and handled 13,404 transits in 2025, so disruption at the two main container gateways can ripple into vessel rotations far from Central America. (pancanal.com) The next question is not whether ships can still cross Panama today. The next question is whether carriers, cargo owners, and terminal operators start treating canal-side handling the way airlines treat a contested hub airport: never rely on one gate, one contractor, or one legal outcome if you can avoid it. (gcaptain.com)