Panama Canal untouched by Covid-19 in 2021
Even anti-pandemic measures cannot stop the flow of trade through the locks of the Panama Canal. As the canal's authority reported, the fiscal year 2021 (FY/2021) from October 2020 to September 2021 posted an annual tonnage throughput of almost 517 million Panama Canal tonnes (PC/UMS).
The figure not only represents an 8.7% surge compared to the previous fiscal year and 10% above tonnage registered in FY/2019, but an all-time high. Since its inauguration by the United States in 1914, more than a million ships have passed through the canal.
In FY/2021, larger vessels carrying more containers and a rising worldwide demand for grain, chemicals and liquefied natural gas boosted throughput. Panama Canal administrator Ricaurte Vásquez Morales: "Fiscal year 2021 has truly been an exceptional year for the Panama Canal." (sh)