Panama Canal traffic volumes hold steady

Total transits remained fairly constant, with a slight decline of 0.1%, from 14,721 to 14,702 transits. Booked transits (excluding auctioned slots) increased by 3.9%, from 7,857 to 8,167. Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tonnage decreased by 1.1% – from 312.9m PC/UMS tons to 309.6m PC/UMS tons.

Tanker traffic jumped by 4.8%, from 1,972 to 2,067 transits, mainly as a result of stronger movements of petroleum from the US Gulf coast to Chile, while tanker tonnage increased by 8.6%. Transits by dry bulkers were slightly up from 2,406 to 2,420, but container transits dropped from 3,622 to 3,544. Passenger vessel transits grew by up 17.6%, from 205 to 241.

Canal Waters Time (CWT), the average time it takes a vessel to navigate the Canal including waiting time, increased by 13.3%. The surge in arrivals during maintenance performed on the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks added to CWT during the second quarter of FY08, pushing the year-end total from 27.84 to 31.55 hours.