|
BOYD |
STEAMSHIP CORPORATION
AGENTS AT THE
PANAMA CANAL FOUNDED
IN 1909 |
Web: www.boydsteamship.com Email: operations@boydsteamship.com
PANAMA
CANAL NEWS
October 15th, 2007
PANAMA CANAL TRANSIT
RESERVATION (BOOKING) SYSTEM
Availability of Booking Slots Cancelled during the 1st
and 2nd Periods
The ever
increasing demand for booking slots has resulted in a surge of rejections to
booking requests, even during the 1st booking period. Currently, booked slots that are cancelled during the 1st or 2nd
periods are carried over to the subsequent period, and cannot be made available
again until the opening of the next period, regardless of the number of
rejections that may have occurred during that period. This results in a
reduction in the number of slots that are finally allocated for the period
during which the cancellation took place.
Therefore,
in order to reduce the number of booking rejections and provide greater
flexibility, these cancelled slots will be made available during the same
period of the cancellation, provided that the period is still open. These slots
will be offered effective October 3, 2007, for all booking dates on or after
October 7, 2007.
Slots that were cancelled prior to October 7, 2007,
during the 1st or 2nd period will be offered, subject to compliance with the
established limits by direction and/or restriction, in the following order:
• Vessels that failed to secure a slot
during the tie-breaker competition for that period, in order of rejection.
• Vessels whose requests for booking slots
were rejected prior to the publication of this advisory, in the order of
rejection, provided that
these vessels did not have a booking slot
secured for another date at the time the request was rejected. Vessels that
already had a
reservation for one date and then
submitted requests for another date and were rejected, must submit a new
request in order to be
considered for the available slot.
• All other vessels on a first come-first
served basis, following ACP notification of availability.
Vessels whose request for a booking slot
was rejected and subsequently obtain a slot for an alternate date will not be assessed
a
cancellation fee for the change in booking
date.
Slots that are cancelled after October 7,
2007, will be offered, first to those vessels that were rejected during
competition for that period,
followed by any subsequent rejections, and
finally to any interested vessel on a first come-first served basis following
ACP notification of
availability.
The procedure for allocation of cancelled
slots during or after the 3rd booking period remains unchanged.
MONTHLY CANAL OPERATIONS SUMMARY – SEPTEMBER
2007
1.
Panama Canal Statistical Summary
2.
Traffic Statistics
3. The following page provides the scheduled locks
maintenance work and other items of interest to the shipping community.
4. This advisory will be canceled for record
purposes on October 31, 2007.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF LOCKS MAINTENANCE WORK
Note: Actual transit capacity will
depend on the type of restriction imposed during work.
Transit Capacity: The normal capacity
of the Panama Canal is 38 transits per day. This capacity is reduced during
locks outages, as indicated in the above table. Consequently, vessels may
experience delays in transiting. Normally, during these periods, the Panama
Canal Transit Reservation System slots are fully utilized. Whenever a set of
locks requires a major outage of one of its two lanes for dry chamber
inspection, miter gate repairs, tow track work or other major
maintenance/improvement projects, advantage may be taken of this requirement to
perform simultaneous single lane outages for additional maintenance at other
locks.
PANAMA CANAL BREAKS SINGLE DAY TRANSIT AND
ANNUAL TONNAGE RECORDS IN SEPTEMBER
In an important milestone that reflects
the increasing global demand for its services, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP)
announced that the Canal broke one annual record and set two new single-day
records. For the first time in Canal history, the waterway reached the transit
mark of 313 million Panama Canal tons; broke the record for the transit of
Panamax ships – the widest vessels to cross the Canal; and, set another record
in total Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tonnage transit in
a single day. Additionally, the Canal tied its record for the one day transit of
“super” vessels, ships measuring 91 feet or more in beam.
“Everyday, we strive for excellence in
our work and we are very proud of these accomplishments,” said ACP Vice
President of Operations Manuel Benitez. “Surpassing our annual tonnage mark,
setting a new Panamax transit record and tying our previously set transit
record for ‘supers,’ reflect the dedication of the Canal employees and our
continued commitment to providing an efficient, safe and reliable service to
our customers. We’ve set the bar high and we look forward to even greater
accomplishments in the future.”
The new transit record of 25 Panamax
vessels set on Wednesday, September 19, breaks the previous mark of 24 set in
July 2003. Contributing to the new record were 10 bulk carriers, six container
ships, three vehicle carriers, three tankers, two roll on/roll off vessels and
one container/breakbulk ship. On that same day, a record 1,113,682 PC/UMS tons
transited the waterway; this breaks the record of 1,072,353 set on May 6, 2007.
In September, fiscal year 2007, the one million PC/UMS tons mark was surpassed
for the twelfth time.
Finally, on September 30, the waterway
reached a transit record of 313 million Panama Canal tons, to date, for the
current fiscal year.
The Canal also tied its March 2006 and
June 2006 transit record for “supers” when 27 of these ships traversed the
Canal on September 19. Due to their wide beams (width) and length overall,
supers have greater limitations and require more resources and time to transit
the waterway.