Hapag-Lloyd and Cosco have become the latest carriers to impose a Panama Canal surcharge (PCC), as the worst drought in more than 50 years continues to restrict capacity at the waterway.

Garman carrier Hapag-Lloyd said it would introduce a $130 per teu PCC on 1 January, when Cosco is set to introduce what it termed a Panama Canal Low Water Surcharge (PLW) of $255 per teu – nearly double Hapag-Lloyd’s, but less than the $297 per teu MSC has plans to introduce on 15 December.

The maximum draught of a vessel able to transit the canal as been reduced from 14.9 metres to 13.4 metres, while the number of daily transits has gone down, from the designed capacity of 34 to 38, to 24, which is set to be reduced to 22 on Friday, and again, to 18, by February.

Meanwhile, congestion at the waterway continues to mount on a daily basis, according to liner database eeSea, with 20 box ships waiting to transit – nine at the Pacific entrance and 11 in the Atlantic.

However, Ms Ozuygur also noted that the build-up of vessels within port anchorages may be connected to carrier attempts to mitigate the PCA’s restrictions.

“One method that has become increasingly popular has been to offload extra cargo in surrounding ports (Balboa, Cristobal or Manzanillo) before transiting N/S, successfully navigating the load restrictions and rerouting some capacity,” She said.

Meanwhile, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben-Jansen recently said he expected increasing numbers of vessels plying the Asia-North America east coast trade to divert to Suez transits on their return trips to Asia, a trend eeSea data now appears to support.