By: Staff Writer
August 21, 2026
The Panama Canal’s draught restrictions this year will spell chaos for ships transiting through the channel.
The Panama Canal Authority (PCA) will cap daily transits as of early September as it gears up for a longer-than-usual El Niño season expected to reduce water levels, it said on Thursday, walking back a previous pledge to not limit vessel passage.
Under the new measures, the canal will limit daily transits as of September 4 to 34 vessels, and reduce the number to 32 as of September 15.
Despite the arrival of the rainy season in Panama, and the water-saving measures implemented by the Panama Canal to mitigate the adverse effects of the El Niño event, the Authority warns that current watershed conditions, including below-expected precipitation in the canal watershed, require additional action to support the long-term sustainability of transit operations.
Earlier restrictions focused on the maximum draft for the vessels, but now it is shifting to the number of daily transits. In the first wave due to go into effect on September 3, the Panama Canal will go from the current 34 daily transits to 32, and a second adjustment at mid-month will shave off two more daily transits in the Panamax locks. As of September 3, the Neopanamax locks for the largest ships will be adjusted to nine daily slots and 25 at the Panamax Locks and then to 23 as of September 15 for the Panamax Locks.
The Authority is warning customers that a reduction in the number of daily transits may increase waiting times for vessels without a secured reservation. The waiting time is already elevated, but has come down in the past few days. Non-booked vessels, on average, are waiting 8.5 days northbound and 7.7 days southbound. As of August 20, 36 non-booked vessels were waiting.
The measures are the result of operational planning informed by lessons learned during the 2023–2024 period, as well as hydrological analyses and historical data that support the canal’s operational decision-making process,” according to a press release from the Panama Canal.
Due to the ongoing draft restriction, ocean carriers have recently updated their previous Panama Canal surcharges. Keep reading for a rundown on the latest fees.
The PCA will make three to five ‘queue-jump slots’ available for auction each day, having noted that pre-Iran war, those slots were reaching prices as high as $135,000 to $140,000.
But by March, that figure was just shy of three-times higher, at an average of $385,000 – reports even claiming carriers broke a three-year old record twice in one week amid the desperation to escape the worsening congestion.
One carrier purportedly coughed up in excess of $4.6m so that its empty oil tanker could jump the queue, surpassing a $4m price tag paid only a few days earlier.
All of which is compounding the nervousness around Panama Canal trade flows going into the El Niño season, the annual Q4 weather event forecasters claim this year has an 81 percent chance of being “very strong”, with conditions likely to persist into early spring.
With stronger El Niños linked to lower water levels, the canal authority has plans to cut the maximum draught for neo-panamax transits: first to 48ft, on 26 August; and then to 47.5ft on 3 September – part of a preparation cycle that has been running since December.