Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Daniel B. Maffei and Commissioner Louis E. Sola are co-leading an FMC delegation to Panama this week examining the consequences of an extended drought on Panama Canal operations and how those conditions affected, and continue to impact, ocean-linked supply chains serving the United States.
A key goal of the trip is to understand what measures the Government of Panama and the Panama Canal Authority have identified to improve the infrastructure of the Canal and make it more resilient to any future disruptions, particularly droughts. The FMC delegation also wants to understand the merits of the responses being considered, the complexity of completing them, their costs, and challenges unique to each project.
The trip itinerary includes meetings with senior Panamanian government officials, the senior leadership of the Panama Canal Authority, Panama Ship Registration, U.S. businesses operating in Panama, and the U.S. diplomatic mission. A visit to the Miraflores Locks is also scheduled.
The Panama Canal is a vital transitway in the ocean-linked supply chains that are beneficial and necessary to the U.S. economy. The Canal serves not just container ships, but tank and bulk vessels as well and more than 14,000 transits were made in fiscal year 2023. Reductions in the capacity of the Panama Canal can lead to increased costs, fewer vessels of fewer types being able to transit, and of particular concern to U.S. companies and consumers, logistical inefficiencies that have consequences from origin to destination.