Panama Canal under pressure: bottlenecks caused by the Iran war and El Niño

Dusseldorf. The situation at the Panama Canal, the bottleneck between the Atlantic and the Pacific, is more tense these days than it has been in years. On both sides of the canal, ships are currently waiting up to two weeks for a place in the locks, which are particularly in demand because of the effects of the Iran war. Asian countries are increasingly importing liquefied gas from the USA because deliveries from Qatar and the other Gulf states are failing.

In addition, there is the El Niño weather phenomenon, which could be particularly intense this year. In Panama, this is causing the water levels in Lago Gatún, the freshwater lake between the two oceans that the ships sail on, to drop significantly.

To prevent the lock operations from allowing too much fresh water to flow into the sea and threatening the state of the lake, the canal authority is reducing the number of passages per day from September. In addition, large ships can no longer sail through the canal fully loaded because the water level is not sufficient.