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A Few Intersting Items from the Panama Canal Annual Report


BillB48
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If anyone is looking for a bunch of tables and other assorted info that could possibly put you to sleep, I highly recommend the 2019 Annual Report for the Panama Canal.  There are however, some interesting nuggets of info that I thought might be of interest.  First the passenger/ cruise ship items...

 

A total of 242 cruise ships transited the Canal in FY 2019.  The Canal's FY runs from Oct. 1 to Sept 30 in the following year.

188 of these transits were full transits and 54 partial transits.

 

There were 14 less cruise ship transits this FY than in FY 18.

 

There were 12 transits using the new locks.

 

A decline of 12% in total passengers and a 10% decline in toll revenue from Cruise ships.

 

General Canal Info...

 

Total of 12,291 ocean going transits during the period.  20% of the transits were through the new locks, however the new locks accounted for 50% of the tolls collected.

 

Petroleum and petroleum products, followed by container cargo then grains are the top commodities shipped through the Canal.

 

Asia to East coast US, West Coast South America to Europe and West Coast US to Europe account for 90% of all container traffic.

 

Trade between  Asia and East Coast of the US account for 61% of total cargo through the Canal.

 

Another tidbit I found fascinating and really doesn't surprise me except I had never seen any official documentation of it.  First we have always have the question on Cruise Critic, "which locks will my ship use?"  The answer that is normally provided here is if it fits the Panamax Locks (original locks), that is the locks the it will use.  That still is the most accurate answer.  Many times when I have answered that question I have frequently prefaced my answer by pointing out that the original will be used unless there is some sort of anomaly that would necessitate a deviation.

 

In the Annual Report  reports there were 88 transits by Panamax vessels (vessels that fit the original locks) through the new locks for Canal "convenience".  Of these 88 transits 22 of the transits used the new locks exclusively, in other words used the new lock for the entire transit.  The remainder of the transits used a combination of Panamax Locks and Neo Locks,  For example Gatun and Cocoli  or Miraflores/Pedro Miguel and Agua Clara.

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  • 2 years later...

Wow, a year has slipped by and here is the Canal's Annual Report, which runs from Oct.1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021.  Nothing particularly outstanding but there are a few things that may be of interest.

 

   72% of the cargo passing through the Canal either originates or terminates in a U.S. port.

   Dry bulk (grains, coal, ore etc) vessels with 3043 transits, were the largest single segment of traffic.

   A close second and third place were containerships at 2602 transits and tanker/chemical with  2596 transits.

   The fourth largest type vessel was Liquefied Petroleum Gas ships at 1523 transits.

   We all know what kind of year it has been for the cruise industry, this past FY there were all of 17 passenger ships to use the Canal as opposed to over 200 in the last FY.

There were a total of 13,342 transits combined Panamax (original) and Neopanamax (new) Locks.

Tonnage was split 45% from the original locks and 55% from the new locks.

 

One of the changes made by the Canal is how the tolls are calculated for larger passenger ships.  No longer is the number of passenger berths used determine the toll.  The tolls are now determined by the Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System or PC/UMS which is how the rest of vessels are measured for toll calculation.  The PC/UMS or sometimes referred to as a Panama Canal Ton, is a measure of the internal volume of the ship much the same as the Gross Tonnage figure is used to describe the size of a ship.  Generally speaking the Panama Canal Ton will be smaller than the Gross Tonnage figure because areas like the engine room, navigation bridge, fuel to operate the ship are not included in the calculation.  If you want to do your own calculations you can still come pretty close by multiplying the number of passengers the ship can carry by $148 and  you will be in the ball park.   Of course there still is a laundry list of charges that are not technically tolls that will substantially impact the total fees paid.  Some of the major charges include tug services, wire or linehandling fees depending on which locks are used, transit reservation and daylight transit guarantee.

 

This year marks the first time that the tonnage reflected in Panama Canal Tons has exceeded 500 millions ton in a one year period, totaling 516.7 million PC Tons.  To put that in perspective, it took 42 years (1914-1956) to reach the first billion Panama Canal Tons.

 

 

 

 

https://pancanal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-AnnualReport.pdf

Edited by BillB48
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/20/2022 at 7:36 AM, BillB48 said:

We all know what kind of year it has been for the cruise industry, this past FY there were all of 17 passenger ships to use the Canal as opposed to over 200 in the last FY.

 

☹️

 

Our last cruise before everything shut down was a full transit of the Canal in January 2020.

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