Panama Canal May Cut Daily Transits Again as Water Shortage Threatens Global Shipping

According to Jin10, Panama Canal administrator Ilya Espino de Marotta warned that daily transits could be cut further in the coming months because water shortages pose a severe threat to the key waterway. Marotta said the number of ships passing through the canal each day could fall to 27 from the already reduced 32, putting pressure on global shipping that has already been affected by the Iran war. She said the potential cut is the Panama Canal Authority's worst-case scenario based on rainfall patterns from 1997, the driest year on record. Climate change is causing water shortages to trouble the canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and carries more than 3% of global trade, about once every three years. The shortage crisis comes as global shipping faces major disruptions, first from Houthi attacks in the Suez Canal three years ago and now from the U.S.-Iran war limiting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict initially boosted canal usage this year, and the cost for ships passing through the authority's daily auction process rose. The canal usually handles 36 transits a day, and on some days earlier this year it handled as many as 40. But the shortage forced authorities to announce that daily transits would be reduced to 32 from mid-September to avoid stricter limits during the dry season from December to mid-April.