A consortium led by the Spanish builder Sacyr said on Thursday that it had won a $233 million settlement in a dispute over cost overruns in an expansion of the Panama Canal, about half what the group had been seeking in the lawsuit. The consortium, which also includes the Italian builder Salini Impregilo, Jan De Nul of Belgium and Constructora Urbana of Panama has filed a series of claims totaling some $2.3 billion over a dispute that halted work early last year to allow bigger vessels to pass through the canal; the one settled on Thursday was related to cement quality. The government-run Panama Canal Authority said on Thursday in a statement that it was still deciding whether to appeal. The expanded canal is set to begin operation in the first quarter of 2016.