Starting Friday, the Panama Canal Authority is implementing additional vessel reductions in an effort to conserve water. A drought, exacerbated by a severe El Nino weather system, continues to plague water levels in the canal locks.
According to Panama Canal authorities, the drought requires them to reduce the number of daily transits from 29 to 25 ships and in the proceeding weeks, they will reduce vessels transits even more until it declines to 18 ships a day in February. That represents between 40%-50% of full capacity.
According to Project44, shipping containers going through the Panama Canal to the US East Coast are being delayed in select ports, with the Port of Charleston seeing the longest in delays.
Source: cnbc.com