Panama Canal Operates Normally Amid Port Operator Changes

The Panama Canal said on Tuesday that it is operating normally while two nearby ports are undergoing an operator change, which has affected cargo movement at both terminals. A “review and inspection process of all equipment” is underway at Balboa, Panama’s second-largest container port, and Cristóbal, the fifth, whose transitional operation was taken over on Monday night by APM Terminals, a subsidiary of the Danish Maersk, and Terminal Investment Limited (TiL), the terminal arm of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), according to official information. “The Panama Canal states that the operations of the interoceanic route continue normally and safely,” stated a communiqué from the waterway administration, through which 3% to 6% of world trade passes. The Government of Panama took control of Balboa and Cristóbal on Monday after the publication in the official gazette of the Supreme Court’s ruling of January 29, which annulled the concession to the Panama Ports Company (PPC), a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, and handed over the transitional operation of both, for a period of up to 18 months, to APM Terminals and TiL. The Canal administration affirmed that “it maintains communications with the entities of the central government for the operations of the vessels that arrive at said port terminals,” while reiterating that the management of the interoceanic route is “based on transparency and technical rigor in its continuous operation.” The ports of Balboa (Pacific) and Cristóbal (Atlantic), two of the five located around the Canal, are paralyzed in the midst of the operator transition following the departure of the Chinese conglomerate CK Hutchison due to the annulment of the concession by an unappealable judicial ruling. APM Terminal was chosen because more than 80% of the containers moving in Balboa are from Maersk and TiL because more than 90% of the cargo passing through Cristóbal is from MSC, and the idea is to keep the supply chain intact, explained Icaza. The 82-kilometer Panama Canal connects 180 maritime routes and 1,920 ports in 170 countries. “We are going to continue this audit, this inventory, this inspection (...) in a relatively short time we will be able to resume port operations,” said Canal Affairs Minister José Ramón Icaza on Tuesday in statements to local media. Its main users are the United States, China, and Japan.