Panama Canal transit auction prices have surged to record highs this summer as an intensifying El Niño and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz upend global shipping routes.
A Bloomberg report Friday morning said a supertanker paid a record $4.6 million at auction to bypass the growing queue and secure an earlier transit slot next week. The spike in canal fees and vessel wait times threatens to further raise freight costs, reinforcing growing concerns about inflationary pressures across global supply chains.
Daily auctions for August passage through the canal's busiest locks have averaged about $1.1 million, more than 16 times the average during the same period last year, according to the Financial Times, citing Argus Media. Recent auctions for the larger locks averaged a record $2.5 million.
Bloomberg said that the liquefied petroleum gas supertanker G. Arete paid a staggering $4.6 million to skip the line, topping an earlier auction this week that exceeded $4 million.
At the same time, the Hormuz chokepoint disruption has pushed Asian buyers toward crude oil and petroleum products at major US export terminals in the Gulf of America, increasing demand for canal passage. Meanwhile, falling canal water levels linked to intensifying El Niño weather conditions, such as drought and limited rainfall, are constraining traffic, which are the main drivers behind rising transit costs.
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