Efforts to boost the status of Panama’s shipping flag by pushing for a younger age profile is producing dividends but has not prevented the country from losing market share.

The Panama Registry was once on the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)’s black list but international shipping bodies now view it as having shed its negative reputation.

Not content to keep the black eye, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) worked to climb its way up the performance ladder by culling substandard ships from the flag and improving the registration profile, after consultations with the Paris MOU.

“Now