Confidence in the Panama Canal to process container vessel transits appears to have completely bombed over the past week.<\/p>\n
\u201cMultiple carriers have revealed changes to imminent voyages by removing the Panama Canal, signalling a continued loss of confidence in the passage in the weeks to come,\u201d said eeSea operations and forecasting analyst Destine Ozuygur.<\/p>\n
However, expectations that this might result in an increase in vessels transiting the Suez Canal have been dented by the recent attacks on commercial shipping by Houthi rebels, off the coast of Yemen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems many vessels that had originally planned to utilize a divergent route through the Suez Canal are now avoiding the area for fear of the safety of their crew and the vessels,\u201d Ozuygur said. \u201cFor the first time in recent memory, we could possibly see a significant downturn of traffic through the Suez and the Panama canals, with a high volume of vessels preferring passage past the Cape of Good Hope.”<\/p>\n