Severe congestion problems in the Panama Canal were expected to disappear by early next week, after the current heavy vessel backlog clears, shipping agents in Panama said on Monday.
Last week, ships in transit in the strategic waterway for oil and commodities cargoes between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were delayed by as long as 10 days due to bad weather and canal maintenance work. Lengthy delays would add more cost to daily freight rates to be paid by ship charterers.
"The maintenance work ended on November 17, but the bad weather worsened the heavy vessel backlog last week," an agent said. Panamax vessels passing through the canal were expected to face a delay of about 3 days this week, significantly lower than 5 to 6 days last week.
"Hopefully, the delay will be cut to only one day by the end of this week as we don't see many scheduled vessel arrivals in the next week," he said. The daily average number of ship transits this week was pegged at about 18, compared with maximum transit capacity of 36 ships a day.
The average auction fee for express transit on the canal in the past week was pegged at $60,000, compared with a record high of $200,000 for August 24, according to an official from the Panama Canal Authority. In December, the authority has tentative plans for maintenance work on December 13-15 and December 20-22. "There will be delays in December, but they won't be as bad as those in November," a second agent said.
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