Trade
It Can Now Cost $4 Million to Skip the Queue at the Panama Canal
- Eneos Group listed as auction winner in bidding documents
- Another vessel is choosing to sail around South America
Cargo ships wait in the anchor zone to cross the Panama Canal.
Photographer: Walter Hurtado/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A logjam at the Panama Canal is leaving shipowners hauling everything from fuels to grains between the US and Asia with no good options - spend weeks waiting at sea, sail around South America, or pay an exorbitant amount to jump the queue.
Japan’s Eneos Group forked out $3.98 million in an auction Wednesday to secure a crossing, bidding documents show. Shipbrokers said Sunny Bright, the company’s liquefied petroleum gas tanker, got a slot to cross the congested waterway in the north-bound direction on Nov. 15. It had previously discharged the fuel it was carrying in China.