Korea Shipping Association Requests Panama Embassy to Address Canal Issues

On the 26th, the Korea Shipping Association announced that it visited the Panama Embassy together with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries the previous day to request improvements to the congestion issue in the canal and solutions to the water level decline.

Recently, the Panama Canal's water level has been decreasing for several years due to drought caused by climate change. The Panama Canal Authority has taken measures such as limiting the number of vessels passing through.

(From left) Kim Jae-gwan, Marketing Director at the Embassy of Panama in Korea; Kim Kyung-hoon, Director of the Korea Shipping Association; Athanasios Kosmas Sifakis, Ambassador of Panama to Korea; Kim Sung-won, Director of Shipping Policy Division at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries; and Kim Ho-taek, Officer, are posing for a commemorative photo. [Photo by Korea Shipping Association]

The association requested solutions through facility investments, and the embassy stated that facility improvements are being pursued to fundamentally resolve the water shortage issue. Atanasio Cosmas Sipaki, the Ambassador of Panama to Korea, said that following the Korea Shipping Association's visit to Panama last month, the opinions of the Korean shipping industry would have been sufficiently conveyed to the Panamanian government and the Canal Authority, and he pledged to do his best to communicate the opinions of the Korean government and shipping industry.

Meanwhile, it is known that about 200 million liters of water are required for a single ship to pass through the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal Authority is limiting vessel traffic as a countermeasure against drought. As a result, congestion is occurring as ships waiting to pass through the Panama Canal are piling up.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.