The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has temporarily lowered the availability of booking slots for panamax vessels as the transit wait time reached 20 days.

The ACP plans to maintain a draught of 13.41 metres — or 44 feet — for the next several months due to prolonged drought conditions.

This has limited transit activity to 32 ships per day, causing backlogs on both sides of the canal that the AMP hopes to alleviate by providing more booking slots to ships other than panamaxes and neopanamaxes.