Trade and tariff analytics
2026-04-26
10 minute read
17 sources
Panama Canal water economics 2026: Gatun Lake, transit auctions, and the Rio Indio reservoir bet
The 2023 to 2024 drought cut Panama Canal daily transits from 36 to 22, drove a single slot auction to USD 4.0 million, and forced US grain, LPG, and LNG cargoes onto Cape and Suez routings. The Rio Indio reservoir at USD 1.2 to 1.6 billion is the structural answer, but it does not commission until 2030.
The Autoridad del Canal de Panama (ACP) reported FY2023 transit revenue of USD 4.97 billion on 14,080 oceangoing transits, then cut its booking slot count from 36 in normal conditions to 22 by November 2023 as Gatun Lake fell to 79.7 feet against the 87 foot ideal. One transit slot auctioned for USD 3.975 million in November 2023, the hig...