Panama mulls over expansion plan of Panama Canal
Panama is working on a plan to expand the Panama Canal without building dams, Panamanian President Martin Torrijos Espino said on Tuesday. A series of floodgates will be built in the project to allow the passage of vessels which are too large to squeeze through the canal, Economy Minister Ricaurte Vasquez said. The Panama Canal Authority said a technical report of the program will be ready in March and then presented to the cabinet. More detailed studies on the floodgate system and how it will impact the canal will be needed, Vasquez added. A complete plan will later be submitted to a referendum, the minister said.
PANAMA CITY, Panama, February 15, 2006 - Today, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) held the christening ceremony of its new drill barge "Barú," named after Panama's only volcano. Entirely manufactured by Panamanians, the Barú is 51 meters long and 15 meters wide, nearly the size of two basketball courts. The new, state-of-the-art barge will play an instrumental role in the Canal's dredging initiatives. Dredging (deepening and widening navigation channels and other areas by extracting mud, rock and sand) is fundamental to maintaining and improving the Panama Canal's infrastructure. The Barú is equipped with four drilling rigs that can bore holes up to 30 meters in a single pass. The drilled holes are loaded with explosives and detonated to fracture the rock. The blasted material is then removed by floating equipment, such as the dipper dredge the Rialto M. Christensen. "The ACP's Industrial Shipyard Division, together with local Panamanian workers, accomplished an enormous task and overcame several challenges building such a large craft. The Barú is one of our best industrial achievements. This is a momentous event as we christen this barge during the dredging conference organized by the Western Dredging Association (WEDA) - in the presence of the world's dredging industry representatives," said ACP Director of Engineering Agustin Arias.
The board of directors of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) continues meeting to analyze the canal expansion project, but not yet it has received a cost-benefit study that's been commissioned. This report should present a financing regimen. Any project to expand the canal will have to be approved by the Executive and Legislative branches before going to the Panamanian people for a referendum. After receiving the study, the board of directors of the ACP must draw up a proposal, detailing the projects details for presentation to the Cabinet. The ACP source also indicated that a toll increase will be coming soon, but that it had nothing to do with the canal expansion project.
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) - Panama's shipping registry is tightening oversight of the companies that inspect its ships after an Egyptian ferry sank last week killing 1,000 people, authorities said Thursday. Panama's Maritime Authority commissions private companies to perform inspections of ships bearing Panamanian registry, like the 'Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98' ferry that sank Feb. 3. "This is an oversight procedure to find out whether these (inspection) companies are properly certifying ships," said Fernando Solorzano, the authority's director. The authority had reviewed the work of four companies last year and has decided to extend the program, which Solorzano hopes will "strengthen and improve the reputation of our registry." Last week, a fire broke out on an aging Egyptian ferry before it sank in the Red Sea. Investigators were still working to determine the fire's connection to the sinking. Panama has one of the largest ship registries in the world, and is widely considered a "flag of convenience" because of the country's low registration costs and requirements. 
By OMAR SINAN , 02.08.2006, 11:23 AM A 93,000-ton cargo ship drifted at the wrong angle inside the Suez Canal during a sandstorm Wednesday and blocked all transit on the waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, a canal authority official said. The Hong Kong-flagged Okal King Dor was traveling north during the sandstorm when it veered at right angles to the canal about six miles south of the city of Ismailiya, the official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, but the official said high winds were a factor. Four tugs were sent to realign the ship. About 8 percent of world sea trade passes through the canal, which is 120 miles long and 330 yards wide at its narrowest, according to the Canal Authority. The ships pass in convoys that take 12 hours to make the journey. The canal is a major source of foreign exchange for Egypt. It earned $3 billion in 2004 when the average number of ships per day was about 47. 
CAIRO, Egypt - A 93,000-ton cargo ship blocked the Suez Canal on Wednesday, stopping all transit of the waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, a Suez Canal Authority official said. The Hong Kong-flagged ship drifted at right angles to the canal while passing through the waterway near Ismailiya, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The incident happened at about 11 a.m. local time, the official said. (Editor's Comment: Why do we care? It looks like this vessel suffered some kind of mechanical failure. But how hard would it be for the bad guys to slam a tanker into one of the locks or something?)
PANAMA’S Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT-Panama) has received six Super Post-Panamax gantry cranes, the largest in Latin America. The port becomes the first in Latin America to be equipped with cranes able to work container vessels with up to 22 containers across. The cranes are part of the new equipment purchased by MIT as part of its US $250m expansion project that will double its capacity over the next five years. “We are creating and building capacity faster than any other port in the Caribbean”, said the managing director of MIT, Carlos Urriola, who added that Phase One of the expansion, which will increase berth capacity to 1,650 metres, would be inaugurated during the second quarter of this year.” 
PANAMA CITY, Panama, January 31, 2006 - The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced today that its Industrial Shipyard Division, as well as its Electrical and Aqueduct Division, received ISO 9001:2000 certification resulting from an audit of its Quality Management System, performed by Det Norske Veritas (DNV). Certification was officially awarded on January 27, 2006. "We at the ACP are greatly honored that our Industrial Shipyard and Electrical and Aqueduct Divisions have been certified on quality procedures. It is a testament to the hard work and devotion by our managers and world-class workforce," said ACP Industrial Services Director, Esteban G. Saenz.
A Panamanian container ship was split in half Friday after it collided in heavy fog with the Cypriot vessel "Pintail" near the Peruvian port of Callao, officials said. Twenty-two crew members from the Panamanian ship were rescued, said Roberto Colombo, general manager of ENAPU, Peru's national ports agency. He said a U.S. vessel, the Alice, also was struck but was not damaged. The broadcaster Radioprogramas said two crew members were taken to a local hospital, apparently with non-life threatening injuries. Local television broadcast images of the 150-meter (495-foot) Panamanian vessel Twin Star with its stern and bow ends jutting sharply from the water. An expanding fuel slick was visible, emerging from the sinking ship. The Panamanian vessel did not carry any potentially hazardous cargo, Colombo told reporters, "so the problem of contamination is limited to capacity of the ship's fuel tanks." Port officials said the accident occurred around 7:17 a.m. local time (12:17 GMT) as the ships passed each other and that heavy fog appeared to have contributed to the incident. 
A new tie-up station will help boost capacity according to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) by reducing idle time at one end of the waterway while vessels are making their transits from the opposite side. The new tie-up station, located at the east side of the Gaillard Cut and just north of the Centennial Bridge, permits vessels to advance from the Pacific Ocean to the southern end of the Gaillard Cut while the first southbound vessel is heading toward the Pedro Miguel Locks. Each day at the Panama Canal, vessels are programmed in a convoy in each direction during daylight hours, one of northbound vessels from the Pacific Ocean and another southbound from the Atlantic Ocean.
Last week the FBI arrested South Korean businessman Tongsun Park in Mexico. Park was on his way to Panama from Canada. He was busted because Mexican officials screening passengers saw that Park was on an Interpol list as an indicted criminal, and tipped off the FBI. Park was taken to Houston and booked, and has since been denied bail as a potential flight risk. Park has been accused of accepting millions of dollars from Iraq in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal. Why should we care? After his arrest, an aid to Mr. Park said "Mr. Park was involved in a Panama Canal expansion project and he was on his way to Panama from Mexico when he was arrested."
PANAMA CITY, Panama, Jan. 18 / PRNewswire/ -- The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced today first quarter (Q1) operational metrics for fiscal year 2006. Transit time for booked and non-booked vessels dropped. Additionally, net tonnage and usage of the reservation system increased and official accidents decreased. Transits of vessels 900 feet or more in length overall rose, while total Canal transits remained relatively flat. These metrics are based on operations from October through December of 2005, the first quarter of the ACP's 2006 fiscal year. Canal Waters Time (CWT), the average time it takes a vessel to transit the Canal including waiting time for passage, decreased 16.1 percent -- to 20.57 hours from 24.51 hours.
January 14, 2006: Under discussion for decades, the project for the expansion of the Panama Canal appears to have finally begun to gain momentum. When the Panamanians assumed control of the canal at the end of 1999 there were widespread predictions that they would prove incapable of managing it effectively and that it would soon fall into serous disrepair. In fact, quite the contrary has occurred. Since taking control the Panamanians have demonstrated their ability to manage the canal quite efficiently, and have not only maintained a profit but have been investing heavily in modernization of the nearly 90 near old facility. But even the best management and maintenance cannot avert the ultimate obsolescence of the canal.
On Tuesday, Panama continued its debt restructuring exercise by offering a new 30-year dollar-denominated bond in exchange for five shorter-dated bonds. The swap offer will expire on 17th January. Panama says it wants to extend its debt maturity profile and reduce its short-term debt burden by swapping existing earlier-maturing debt into longer-dated debt. The new bond, maturing in 2036, will have a collective action clause allowing Panama to amend its terms with the consent of not less 75% of the holders of outstanding bonds.
Panamanian President Martin Torrijos will set aside $200 million dollars from money earned by the Panama Canal for infrastructure improvement projects. In total, the government will spend $500 million over the next ten years, but the schedule is laid out so that the sitting president will have control only over the first $200 million. These numbers are preliminary, but according to the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Ricaurte Vásquez, each year $50 million will be made available between 2006 -2016.
The Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has held two special meetings this week in order to advance the Panama Canal expansion project. The ACP wants to get the project moving as fast as possible, and is waiting for some studies to get finished. The plan will require the approval of the ACP, the executive branch (the Cabinet) and the National Assembly, as well as a national vote or referendum to gain the approval of the Panamanian people. Ricaurte Vásquez is the Minister of Economy and Finance and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), with the rank of Minister for Canal Affairs.
Last week Panama Ports Company (PPC) offered a cocktail party to celebrate the Festivals of Christmas with clients and friends as a way to thank clients for their support during the year. At Balboa there are now 3 container docks operating with 9 container cranes and a productivity average of 40 containers per hour by crane, making it one of the most efficient ports of the Hutchison Group with 100% Panamanian labor and investments that have been initiated for the sum of US $500-million in the two ports of Balboa and Cristobal to transform them into mega ports. The Christmas Party also served as an opportunity to welcome the new shipping lines that are arriving at Panama Ports.
The Panama Canal will be obsolete by 2013 when it won’t be able to service large vessels, larger than the current capacity of the inter-oceanic passage, warned a paper from the Panama Canal Authority, ACP. If the canal is not widened, “it can be anticipated that much of the relevant demand which can not be serviced will migrate to the Suez Canal and the inter-modal United States system”, pointed out the paper which has elaborated 120 assessments reports related to the future expansion of the waterway. The canal “could in the mid term see its client base considerably reduced, loosing relevance in the market”, and left “in a strategic and disadvantageous position, dependent on few routes with predominantly few users”, underlines the report.
PANAMA CITY, Panama, December 22, 2005 - More ships will be able to book reservations at the Panama Canal in the New Year, leading to increased levels of reliability at the waterway. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced today the addition of two booking slots, available to "supers" (vessels 91 feet or more in beam). The booking slots were added in response to the greater demand of the Canal, as well as to satisfy customer requests for increased availability. Applications to transit using these additional slots will be received beginning Sunday, December 29, 2005 for transits starting January 1, 2006.
There are more ships registered under the Panamanian flag than any other country. The Director General of the Merchant Marine of the Panamanian Maritime Authority (AMP) Fernando Solórzano says that "to date we have 6,654 ships and a total of 130 million tons registered." He said these figures put Panama "in first place, ahead of our competetors like the Bahamas, Liberia, Cyprus, Greece, the Marshal Islands, and others." He also said registrations under the Panamanian flag have risen in recent years, especially with newly constructed container vessels.
MORE ships will be able to book reservations at the Panama Canal in the New Year, leading to increased levels of reliability at the waterway, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) says. It says that the booking slots for ships of over 91ft beam are being added in response to the greater demand and to satisfy customer requests for increased availability. Booked vessels account for more than 50% percent of ocean-going transits, up 5% in last financial year. "The ACP's, world-class workforce is maximizing the waterway's resources to the advantage of its customers," said Jorge Quijano, ACP Maritime Operations Director. "The addition of these two new booking slots will allow our customers to secure additional transit slots with a guaranteed passage date, thus increasing the reliability of the services provided by the waterway. This action keeps us abreast of the growing demand for the Panama Canal's All-Water Route.” 
The Sethusamudram Corporation Limited (SCL), the nodal agency implementing the multi-crore Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP), would soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Panama Canal Authority (PCA). Union Minister for Shipping T R Baalu, announcing this to the press after signing the MOU with Suez Canal Authority (SCA), said to avail the experience of the Panama Canal Authority, the SCL would soon sign an MoU on the lines of that signed with Suez authorities.
The distance between New York and San Francisco is around 4,000km by land but, before the Panama Canal was built, a whopping 21,000km by sea. Ships needed to round the tip of South America then head back north to reach their destination. When the canal opened in 1914, it cut the distance to just more than 8,000km. It saves businesses time and money by allowing cargo ships to avoid the long trip, and continues to be a key factor in world shipping. Each year the canal accommodates the passage of over 14,000 ships, carrying over 203 million tonnes of cargo — 70 per cent destined to or originating from the US.
The Panama Canal, while currently coping with the growth in tonnage and transits, is unlikely to be able to mitigate the continuing pressure on North American West Coast ports and rail infrastructure over the next 10 years, findings of a recent study by APL show. The APL-commissioned research by Drewry Shipping Consultants indicated that use of the Panama Canal climbed sharply last year as shippers moved to all-water services in response to congestion at U.S. West Coast ports and deteriorating performance of the trans-continental railroads. While the Panama Canal Authority is making improvements that will have the result of improving its capacity over the next several years, Drewry's projections showed that a 3% annual growth in vessel numbers would be enough to swallow the increased throughput by as early as 2008.
Panama is wrestling with the biggest decision in its history - build a new canal at a cost that may be not much less than the value its annual output, with all the risk that implies, or do nothing, and let the existing waterway deteriorate, along with the country’s ports and terminals. Within a few years, much of the world’s cargo fleet will be too big to pass through Panama, unless the country accepts the huge risk involved in building a new canal. The first big hurdle would consist of financing the project, which will cost at least $5 billion and maybe twice as much. This money would have to come from foreign investors. But the annual value of Panama’s output is only around $14 billion, and the country already owes national and foreign creditors close to $9 billion.
The Administrator of the Panama Canal (ACP), Alberto Alemán Zubieta, indicated they should have the final details worked out regarding plans to expand the Panama Canal during the first months of 2006. The ACP's Board of Directors should analize the proposal, and if adopted, it will go the the Cabinet and eventually to the Assembly. But the Panamanian people will have the last word and will decide wether or not to expand the canal in a national referendum.
The Panama Canal normally has a transit capacity of 38 vessels per day. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) routinely has to shut down the canal's locks in order to conduct preventive maintenance. These outages are announced to the world through the ACP's website well in advance of the work outage. A 10-day lane outage is common, and can cause back-ups in traffic. Ships are scheduled to transit the canal through agents, and they make their reservations well in advance. Even though, an outage can cause significant delays and cause ships to get backed up in the parking lots, awaiting their turn to pass.
