1,000th Neo-Panamax Vessel Passes Through Expanded Panama Canal

By Mark Edward Nero

Less than nine months after the inauguration of the expansion of the Panama Canal, the waterway has welcomed its 1,000th Neo-Panamax vessel.

On Sunday, March 19, Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s containership MSC Anzu made the historic 1,000th transit through the expanded canal, heading northbound from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The Panama-flagged containership, which was built in 2015, measures about 300 meters (984 feet) in length and 48.23 meters (157 feet) in beam with a carrying capacity of over 9,000 TEUs.

The 1000th transit marked a significant milestone for the Expanded Canal, which is experiencing a steady flow of traffic – including containerships, liquid petroleum gas vessels and liquefied natural gas vessels. Other segments like dry bulk carriers, vehicle carriers and crude product tankers have also transited through the expanded canal, according to the Panama Canal Authority, the government of Panama agency charged with managing, operating and maintaining the canal.

According to the same source, as of March 2017, the average number of Neo-Panamax vessels transiting the new lane per day is 5.9. In February, the Panama Canal set a new daily tonnage record of 1.18 million tons after welcoming a total of 1,180 vessels through both the expanded and original locks. The previous records were established in December 2016 and January 2017, when the waterway set monthly tonnage records for transiting 35.4 million tons and 36.1 million tons, respectively.

Expanded Panama Canal Receives 1st Ship

By Mark Edward Nero

After nine years of construction that was occasionally marred by delays, the expansion of the Panama Canal became official June 26 with an inauguration ceremony.

During the inauguration, container vessel COSCO Shipping Panama transited the Agua Clara Locks on the Canal’s Atlantic side during the early morning, and the Cocoli Locks in the afternoon.

A regular schedule of transits through the expanded canal began the following day, June 27.

The COSCO Shipping Panama set sail from the Greek Port of Piraeus on June 11 and made the inaugural transit of the expanded Panama Canal after a two-week journey. The June 26 ceremonies were witnessed by 17 members of the US Congress, as well as 70 heads of state from around the globe.

The COSCO Shipping Panama is a new containership that was just launched in January. The vessel, which is 984 feet (300 meters) in length and 157 feet (48.25 meters) in beam, has a container carrying capacity of 9,472 TEUs.

It was built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, the same company that constructed the valves that control the flow of water through the Canal’s new locks.

The Panama Canal expansion is the largest construction project undertaken in the waterway since its 1914 opening. Construction to double the canal’s cargo capacity began in 2007.

The $5.25 billion project allows post-Panamax ships to travel through the canal en route to East Coast terminals, thereby bypassing the US West Coast. It was initially scheduled to be complete in 2014 to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the opening of the existing canal.

The expansion of the Panama Canal could “reorient the landscape of the logistics industry and alter the decision-making calculus of the shippers that the canal serves,” according to a recent study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group and logistics provider CH Robinson.

West Coast ports currently receive two-thirds of container flows from East Asia, but as much as 10 percent of that traffic could shift to East Coast ports by the year 2020, due in major part to the Panama Canal expansion, according to the study.