About our Panama Canal news
Latest news on the Panama Canal, a lock-type canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow Isthmus of Panama. It is owned and administered by the Republic of Panama.
The canal is about 50 miles (82 km) long from deep water to deep water, and has an average depth of 43 feet (13 m) through the Gaillard (Culebra) Cut. The width varies between 500 to 1,000 feet (150 to 300 m).
The canal was completed in 1914 by the United States, after taking over the project from France, which failed to build a sea-level canal in the 1880s. The canal is one of the two most strategic artificial waterways in the world, the other being the Suez Canal. It shortens the voyage between the east and west coasts of the United States by about 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km), and between Europe and East Asia or Australia by up to 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km).
The canal uses a system of locks that lift and lower ships by filling and emptying chambers with water from nearby lakes. The canal depends on rainfall to replenish the water supply for its operations. In 1979, control of the canal passed to the Panama Canal Commission, a joint agency of the United States and Panama, and in 1999, complete control passed to Panama. The canal is now managed by the Panama Canal Authority (Autoridad del Canal de Panamá), which answers solely to the government of Panama.
A severe drought hit the Panama Canal in 2023, leading to a huge traffic jam that could take at least 10 months to clear up. Supply chain visibility startup Project44 said the wait time for ships that haven't been booked with the Panama Canal has increased 280% since June 2023. The backlog is caused by a severe drought that has lowered the water level in the canal, forcing authorities to impose restrictions on vessel weights and daily traffic. The congestion could affect the delivery of goods for the holiday season, especially for retailers that rely on imports from Asia.