The Cabinet Council of the Republic of Panama has officially approved a proposal to modify the Canal tolls structure, following a recommendation from the Panama Canal Authority Board of Directors.
The passage follows more than a year of informal consultations with representatives from various industry segments, an open call for comments, and a public hearing to solicit industry feedback on these changes, ACP said in a statement.
Most segments will now be priced based upon different units of measurement to meet and align with the diverse traffic transiting the locks. For instance, dry bulkers will be based on deadweight tonnage capacity and metric tons of cargo. Liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas vessels, will be based on cubic meters and tankers will be measured and priced on Panama Canal Universal measurement system tons and metric tons of cargo. Container ships will continue to be measured and priced on TEUs and passenger vessels will continue to be based on berths or PC/UMS. In addition, a new Intra Maritime Cluster segment has been created which includes local tourism vessels, marine bunkering and container transshipment vessels that do not compete with international trade.
The tolls restructuring will also be implemented alongside a customer-loyalty program for the container segment, a first for the ACP. Frequent container customers will now receive premium prices, once a particular TEU volume is reached.
Panama Canal Administrator/CEO Jorge L. Quijano said “As we prepare for the completion of the Canal’s Expansion Program, we will now accommodate longer, wider ships and the new LNG segment.”
The newly approved toll adjustments for all market segments are scheduled to go into effect on April 1, 2016, except for the new Intra Maritime Cluster Segment which go into effect with this approval.
[mappress mapid=”17204″]
Image: Panama Canal