As the worst drought in more than 50 years continues to limit the capacity of the Panama Canal, Hapag-Lloyd and COSCO are the latest shipping lines to impose the Panama Canal Surcharge (PCC).
German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd said it will introduce the $130 TEU Panama Canal Low Water Surcharge (PCC) on Jan. 1, when COSCO Shipping will introduce the $255 TEU Panama Canal Low Water Surcharge (PLW) — almost double that of Hapag-Lloyd but less than the $297 TEU that MSC plans to launch on Dec. 15.
The maximum draft of the vessels capable of passing through the canal is from 149 meters reduced to 134 meters, while the number of daily passes through the canal has also been reduced from the designed 34-38 times to 24 times, on Friday to 22 times and again to 18 times in February.
At the same time, congestion on the waterways is increasing every day, with 20 container ships waiting to cross, nine at the entrance to the Pacific Ocean and 11 at the Atlantic entrance, according to the liner data provider EESEA.
However, Destine Ozuygur, an analyst at EESEA operations and **, said that if you take into account the four ships in Balboa, three ships in Manzanillo Colon and two ships in Cristobal, the actual total waiting is close to 30. By comparison, yesterday there were 17 ships waiting to cross the border, while another 10 ships were anchored in surrounding ports.
However, Ozuygur also pointed out that the accumulation of vessels within port anchorages may be related to carriers' attempts to mitigate PCA restrictions. "An increasingly popular method is to unload excess cargo at the surrounding ports (Balboa, Cristobal or Manzanillo) before crossing the NS, successfully passing the load limit and rescheduling some capacity. Ozuygur said.
Meanwhile, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen recently said he expects an increasing number of vessels to/from the Asia-North America East Coast** to transit through the Suez Canal on their return to Asia, a trend that now appears to be supported by EESEA.
This has been a consistent practice for vessels deployed on the Ocean Alliance AWE5 service, but there has been no public consultation indicating any official changes to the service's schedule. "Since the start of these restrictions at the end of May, 21 vessels on the service have avoided the Panama Canal altogether, most recently the 'Ever Frank' on November 20," Ozuygur added. ”
Ozuygur added that the second-most frequent diversion from Panama to Suez was the Ocean Alliance's AWE8 service, "with four ships skipping the Panama Canal and choosing Suez." "Although other shipping lines seem to have chosen to use Suez for their Asian return ships. "In the last 24 hours, our analysts have also found that three ships served by the THE-ALLIANCE EC1 may also be diverted to the Suez Canal due to the recent increase in congestion. ”
This article ** Maritime Network.