The Panama Canal, June 17, 2020. -
Arnulfo Franco
The figures are still trompe l'oeil.
Neither the decline in the number of ships, nor the coronavirus or even the trade war between the United States and China will have so far had a real impact, over the entire fiscal year 2020, on the Panama Canal. .
It even broke, between October 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020, its attendance record in tonnage.
A declining number of ships
Over the period, 475.1 million tonnes passed through the approximately 80 km of the canal, i.e. 1% more than the previous year (469 million tonnes), announced the Panama Canal Authority ( ACP).
However, the number of vessels (13,369) is down 2%, and the tonnage performance is 4% lower than initial projections.
Container ships continued to rank first among ships using the canal, with 166.3 million tonnes, or 35% of the total.
The good numbers are unlikely to last, however, and the health crisis is already starting to be felt.
The first half of the year got off to an excellent start and the fiscal year was “ahead of schedule,” but that momentum was shattered by the pandemic.
A drop of around 20% in attendance was recorded between May and July, particularly affecting passenger traffic as well as that of vehicle transport vessels and LNG carriers.
The channel "is a reflection of the trends of the world economy which will suffer this year a contraction of 5 to 6% due to the pandemic", commented the ACP.
About 3.5% of world trade passes through this interoceanic route.
Its main customers are the United States, China and Japan, mainly to connect Asia to the east coast of the United States.
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