When I took up the post of Canal administrator in 2019, I saw a growing opportunity to elevate the waterway’s service and value amid growing shifts in global trade. At the same time, with the uncertainty facing the world, customers asked the Canal for price predictability.
Recent changing market conditions confirmed that these two visions for the future of the Canal could be reconciled. To be implemented, however, they would require reshaping our core business structure to mirror how customers operate today, as well as use and find value in the Panama Canal’s service. For this reason, on April 1, we presented the industry with a proposal for a new simplified tolls structure. The proposed changes will not only modify the Panama Canal’s tolls structure. Instead, they will recalibrate our overall business structure to line up with customers’ and industry’s goals.
This proposal marks the start of a new era for the Panama Canal — one focused on maximizing the value the waterway creates, captures, and renders to customers in today’s new trade landscape and moving forward.