Scheduled maintenance at Miraflores Locks & modifications to Transit Reservation (Booking) System

02 Oct 2024 / Panama Canal, Panama

The West Lane of Miraflores Locks will be out of service due to concrete maintenance on the West Southend approach wall from 0001 hours on Saturday, October 26, 2024, until 1200 hours on Monday, October 28, 2024 (60 hours).

During this period, and in accordance with the rules governing the Transit Reservation System, the number of slots available to supers and regular vessels will be reduced. During Booking Period 2, five (5) booking slots will be offered to supers and no booking slots will be offered to regular vessels. No booking slots will be offered during Booking Period 3 for supers and regulars. The total number of slots available to supers and regulars will be 13 and 3 respectively.

Applications for reserved transit slots while this condition is in effect will be received at the opening of the 2nd Period tiebreaker Competition from October 12 to 14, 2024, for booking dates from October 26 to October 28, 2024. The Just-In Time (JIT) transit slots available for supers and regular vessels transiting without restrictions will remain at one (1) per direction. Previously published rules regarding the Transit Advancement Service, as well as the slots that are carried over from previous periods or become available due to cancelations or other reasons, will still apply during the maintenance period.

As a reference, the following summarizes the slot distribution per Booking Period for the Panamax and Neopanamax Locks for booking dates from October 26, 2024, to October 28, 2024:

NEOPANAMAX
- Special Period: 1
- Period 1 (90 Days): 2
- Period 1A (30-15 Days): 3
- Period 2 (14-8 Days): 3*
- Period 3 (Auction) (7-2 Days): 1
- Total: 10
*Includes the “conditioned” slot

SUPERS
- Special Period: 3
- Period 1 (90 Days): 5
- Period 1A (30-15 Days): N/A
- Period 2 (14-8 Days): 5
- Period 3 (Auction) (7-2 Days): 0
- Total: 13

REGULARS
- Special Period: 2
- Period 1 (90 Days): 1
- Period 1A (30-15 Days): N/A
- Period 2 (14-8 Days): 0
- Period 3 (Auction) (7-2 Days): 0
- Total: 3

TOTAL
- Special Period: 6
- Period 1 (90 Days): 8
- Period 1A (30-15 Days): 3
- Period 2 (14-8 Days): 8
- Period 3 (Auction) (7-2 Days): 1
- Total: 26

Additionally, during the maintenance period, of the total number of slots available to supers, no more than seven (7) supers may be booked for transit in each direction, and of these, no more than two (2) with daylight restrictions per direction. The combined number of daylight restricted vessels shall not exceed four (4) vessels. Similarly, no more than two (2) regular vessels may be booked for transit per direction, and of these, no more than one (1) may be allocated to vessels transiting with restrictions per direction for a total of one (1) vessel with restriction per transit date.

Once the maintenance is complete, the 20 slots for supers and the 6 slots for regular vessels will be reinstated for booking dates beginning October 29, 2024.

(For information about operations in Panama, contact GAC Panama at [email protected])

Source: Panama Canal; Authority Advisory To Shipping No. A-37-2024 dated 1 October 2024

If quoting any content from Hot Port News, please cite GAC Hot Port News as the source.

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