From April next year, container ships of up to 13 000 TEUs will be able to navigate the Panama Canal and carriers are already starting new Panama-transiting services to build up their customer base, said Drewry Maritime Research in this week’s Container Insight Report.
Since the start of the year there have been six new services created for the Asia to US East Coast trade, with all but one of them routed via Panama.
There are currently 25 weekly Asia-USEC services, with 16 going via Panama and nine via Suez. The latest addition to the Asia-USEC via Panama roster is the TP10 from 2M carriers Maersk and MSC.
Drewry commented that carriers would continue to build up their Panama services ahead of next year’s expansion, but cautioned that unless this was carefully managed they risked losing more of the East Coast freight rate premium.
Carriers jockey for position in extended Panama Canal
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