Container Ship Pays $4 Million To Skip Panama Canal Queue Amid US-Iran War
Wait times are stretching beyond a week as shipowners use canal auctions, and the Panama Canal Authority says some bids have topped $1 million.
- On Monday, August 10, the Seaspan Benefactor paid $4 million to jump the queue at the Panama Canal, an auction fee more than double the average of the previous seven days.
- Vessels seeking alternative routes due to the Iran war are compounding congestion, while the Panama Canal Authority reduced maximum draft in Neopanamax locks due to low rainfall from El Nino.
- Neopanamax-Size vessels without booked slots now face a 10 days wait, the highest since May, while the Panama Canal Authority acknowledged some auction costs have exceeded $1 million.
- Buyers and sellers in Asia are scrambling to find alternative routes as traffic remains deeply curtailed at Persian Gulf transit points, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb.
- The Seaspan Benefactor was positioned on the Pacific side on Tuesday, August 11, waiting to transit after traveling from South Korea, while the Panama Canal Authority declined to comment on the transaction.
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A portcontainer ship would have paid about four million dollars to get priority at crossing the Panama Canal, where waiting times reached about 10 days. Costs increased strongly on the background of the disturbances caused by the war in Iran and the drop in water levels associated with the El Niño phenomenon.
The commercial ships crossing the Panama Canal face an increase in costs in full disruption triggered by the war with Iran and the drop in water levels associated with this year's intense weather system El Niño. According to the British newspaper, the Guardian, a container ship will have paid about $4 million (3.4 million euros) to drill a row of ships waiting to pass through the vital sea strangle point. The ships are now waiting about 10 days …
A container ship paid a record sum to avoid the queue on the Panama Canal. War in the Middle East and El Niño exacerbate the bottleneck.
Container Ship Pays $4 Million To Skip Panama Canal Queue Amid Iran War
The near-record high auction figure was paid by the owner of the vessel, the Seaspan Benefactor, according to people familiar with the matter who could not be identified because the auction data is private.
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