- Panama Canal congestion spurs more LNG and LPG carriers to take the long route to Asia around the Cape of Good Hope.
- The good news for containerized cargo shippers is that container lines have reserved booking slots. The delays are affecting ships without reservations.
- Since the Panama Canal debuted its larger Neopanamax locks in 2016, the three heaviest users have been container ships, LNG carriers and LPG carriers.
- The consequence over the past month and a half: transit delays.
According to Greg Miller for Freight Waves based on facts and figures, delays for both vessel categories are much higher than they were at this time last year. It also shows that LPG shipping delays substantially improved in November, but delays for LNG carriers got worse.
Reasons for the delay in Panama Canal
The delays were attributed to bad weather, high traffic and partly to COVID.
During the latest call of Oslo-listed Avance Gas, the company’s chief commercial officer, Ben Martin, partially attributed delays to “the COVID effect of lack of crew to be able to manage the tugboats, which limits the number of transits.”
Those comments were subsequently reported by Argus Media.
What does the statistics say?
According to the latest available statistics, 137 container ships transited the Neopanamax locks during the month of October.
It includes all ship types, there were 315 transits via the larger locks.
That’s the highest monthly tally since these locks opened — despite the congestion that began that month.
FreightWaves asked Maersk and another container-industry source whether they saw any canal delays affecting schedules. Both reported that so far, they did not.
Data based on Cleaves Securities
According to Cleaves Securities, “Our satellite data shows that eight VLGCs [were] awaiting Panama Canal transit as of Monday morning, with an average waiting time of around 2.8 days. This is down from the 3.8-day average in October, but up from the 1.7-day average between May and August.”
Clarksons views
According to Clarksons, spot rates for M-type, electronically controlled, gas injection (MEGI) LNG carriers are currently $123,000 per day.
It attributed the high rates to “stronger demand, export facility disruptions and delays at the Panama Canal.”
An insight from Kpler
Kpler looked at the weekly capacity of gas carriers with extended delays. It tracked ships that were stationary for seven to 15 days prior to transit.
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Source: Freight Waves
