Panama Canal’s Authority has set up an auction so operators of NeoPanamax containerships in particular can book a new daily slot towards the US East Coast.
A competition will be held to book ‘Northbound’, or Pacific-Atlantic slots, for which a new slot will be made available every day for the period starting on December 1, 2017 and ending after the busy Christmas period on December 31, 2017.
This competition will be held by the Panama Canal Authority at 9:00 in the morning of September 26, 2017.
In the competition, one additional slot will be offered to vessels transiting northbound, for a maximum of four northbound slots per day.
Southbound or Atlantic-Pacific slots, however, will remain at three per day through the busy Christmas period.
Read a related technical paper by consultancy GLD Partners on how the Panama Canal has changed shipping, in particular to North America.
A second special competition for vessels transiting this winter, from January 1, 2018 through March 31, 2018, will be held at 9:00 am on September 27, 2017.
A third competition for slots beginning on April 1, 2018 through the remainder of the other booking period will be held at 9:00 am on September 28, 2017.
Full container vessels will have a preference over other vessel types when allocating these additional slots through the special competitions.
If no full container vessels are booked for a slot, the slot will be awarded to any vessel that participated in the special competition, based on the Panama Canal Authority’s customer ranking.
NeoPanamax vessels that have been awarded slots for alternate dates due to unavailability of slots can use the competition to change to dates when slots become available, without incurring a cancellation fee.
Following the wind-up of the special competition, any remaining slots will become available to all vessels on a first-come, first-served basis.