According to WMN, The Panama Canal closed its 2018 fiscal year exceeding expectations; It breaks the record in tonnage transit during 2018: 442.1 million tons of the Panama Canal (PC / UMS), which represents an increase of 9.5 percent over the previous year.
With this number, the Panama Canal exceeds the cargo projections of 429.4 million tons of PC / UMS for the fiscal year 2018, as well as the 403.8 million tons of PC / UMS registered in the fiscal year 2017.
“The Panama Canal continues to exceed our expectations, reinforcing every day the importance of the expansion of the waterway and its impact on global maritime trade,” said Jorge L. Quijano, Administrator of the Panama Canal.
The increase was driven by the transit of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) ships, container ships, chemical tankers, and RoRo.
The container segment continued to serve as the leading market segment for tonnage through the channel, representing 159 million tons of PC / UMS of total cargo, of which 112.6 million tons of PC / UMS transited the expanded channel. Oil tankers, including LPG and LNG carriers, remained close to a total of 130.3 million tons of PC / UMS.
In the third place are bulk carriers with 73.7 millennia of PC / UMS, and later the car carriers or Roll on Roll Off with 49.5 million PC / UMS.
In terms of cargo tonnage, the main routes using the Panama Canal in fiscal year 2018 were between Asia and the US. UU East coast, the west coast of South America and the United States. East coast, the west coast of South America and Europe, the west coast of Central America and the USA. UU East coast and intercoastal of South America.
The Panama Canal said that the main users during the period were the United States, China, Mexico, Chile and Japan, while about 62.8 percent of the total cargo that transits the canal had its origin or destination in the United States.
