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Panama Canal transits down 29%, Drewry

[ October 25, 2024   //   Gary G Burrows ]

Transits of the Panama Canal dropped 29 percent in the Panama Canal Authority’s fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, reports Simon Heaney, Drewry’s senior manager, container research.
Transits of the Central American cut-through reached 9,936 in FY2024, down 29.4 percent from the 14,080 transits in FY2023. With an extra leap-year day in FY2024, the daily average decreased 30 percent to 27.1 per day, com 38.6 per day in FY2023, Heaney said.
The Panama Canal is almost back to normal operation, following the relaxation of water-saving protocols, including raising the maximum daily vessel transits to 35 in August.
ACP saw another month-over-month improvement in activity in September. , with daily average transits of all commercial shipping increased to 31.9 per day in September, the best monthly result since October 2023, and down 3.6 percent from 30.8 in August, according to Drewry.
Every single sector experienced fewer transits in FY2024, but containers suffered the least, reducing only 0.5 percent year-over-year to 2,773. Consequently, containers’ share of Panama Canal transits in the period surged by 8.3 percentage points to 27.9 percent, making it the most active sector user of the Panama Canal for the second consecutive fiscal year, Heaney said.
Dry bulk, which was the biggest sectoral user of the canal in FY2022, suffered the biggest market share loss in FY2024, as a 52 percent decline in transits saw its share drop 6 percentage points to 12.9 percent. Dry Bulk, along with other sectors, has been steadily returning to the Panama Canal in recent months, and with the normalization of operations, Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd. expects to see more balanced market shares during FY2025, he concluded.

Tags: Panama canal