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Panama Canal live traffic

Pacific Ocean ↔ Caribbean Sea

AIS live AIS updated 0 sec ago
Official transit statistics IMF PortWatch

Normal traffic

29 transits on 13 September · 7-day average 29.7 per day

95% of normal · 2025 average 31.1 per day
→ 1%7 days vs previous 7
↓ 6.4%30-day average vs normal
32.1per day, same week last year
29Transits · 13 Seplatest published day
29.77-day averagetransits per day
29.130-day average873 transits in 30 days
31.1Normal · 2025average transits per day

IMF PortWatch counts ships that complete a transit, from satellite AIS. Latest published day: 13 September 2026 (5 days behind today); the series is updated weekly. Next release expected around 22 September. Methodology

Daily transits since 2019 · IMF PortWatch

Bars: transits per UTC day. Line: 7-day average. Numbered markers: events from the timeline below.

Vessel types last 30 days · IMF PortWatch

  • Tankers 395 45%
  • Container ships 236 27%
  • Dry bulk 126 14%
  • General cargo 47 5%
  • Ro-ro 69 8%

On 13 Sep: Tankers 12 · Container ships 8 · Dry bulk 5 · General cargo 1 · Ro-ro 3

Timeline what moved the numbers

  1. 2
    1 Aug 2024
    Transit slots return to normal levels after the rainy season
    Reuters
  2. 1
    30 Jul 2023
    Drought forces the canal authority to cut daily transits and draught limits
    Reuters

Latest news via Google News

Collected automatically from news media by keyword filters and not verified by StraitTraffic. Dated events that explain the numbers are in the timeline.

Live layer terrestrial AIS

Vessels right now and our own transit count

Positions received in the last 30 minutes from shore-based AIS receivers, and transits counted by StraitTraffic from those signals. Independent of the official statistics above.

AIS live AIS updated 0 sec ago
Partial AIS coverage.

Shore receivers reach only part of this area, so the map shows only some of the vessels and StraitTraffic does not count transits here. Use the official statistics above for traffic levels.

How coverage works
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Background

About Panama Canal traffic

The Panama Canal links the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea across 80 kilometres of locks and lakes. Around 30 to 40 ships a day pass between Balboa and Colón; in drought years the canal authority limits draught and daily slots, which is why transit counts are a closely watched indicator for container and LNG trades.

How transits are counted

A transit is counted when a vessel is seen in the Pacific anchorage off Balboa, then inside the canal, and then in the Caribbean off Colón, or the reverse. Vessels waiting at anchor for a slot are visible on the map but do not count until they complete the passage. Official daily totals come from IMF PortWatch.