The Panama Canal is limited by water, not by width. Every ship that goes through the locks uses fresh water from Gatun Lake, so the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) caps how many ships transit each day, how deep they may sit in the water (the draft) and who gets which transit slot. A ship with a confirmed booking transits on its date; a ship without one "may experience indefinite delays", in the ACP's own words. As of 28 September 2026 (Advisory to Shipping A-36-2026) the canal offered 33 booking slots a day and allowed a maximum draft of 14.94 m (49.0 ft) in the Neopanamax locks, after a dry spell earlier in the year. Shippers never book a slot or pay a toll themselves: the carrier does, and you feel the canal as transit time, space and surcharges.
How the Panama Canal transit reservation system works
Since the drought of 2023, the ACP's Transit Reservation (Booking) System has been the main way to secure a transit date. The ACP says its booking and reservation regulations have been in effect in their current form since 24 November 2023, and that a confirmed reservation is the only mechanism that guarantees a transit date. Shipping lines, bulk operators and their agents compete for slots; cargo owners do not.
The ACP sorts ships into three categories by size, which matter because each has its own pool of slots:
- Neopanamax: ships using the larger locks opened in 2016 (the ACP's tariff defines them by a beam over 107 ft and/or a length over 966 ft). Most big container ships fall here. For the ship classes themselves, see our guide to Panamax, Neopanamax and ULCV container ship classes, which we will not repeat.
- Super: ships using the original (Panamax) locks with a beam from 91 ft up to the Neopanamax size.
- Regular: ships using the original locks with a beam under 91 ft.
Slots are released in stages, and the earlier a customer books, the more predictable the date. The ACP's advisories describe these windows (counted back from the transit date):
| Stage | Window before transit | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Special Period | 730 to 366 days | Far-advance allocation |
| LoTSA | More than 90 days | Long-Term Slot Allocation: a package of slots won in a sealed-bid auction |
| Period 1 | 90 to 31 days | Main competition for slots |
| Period 1A | 30 to 15 days | Mid-range competition |
| Period 2 | 14 to 8 days | Late competition |
| Period 3 (auction) | 7 to 2 days | Daily auction slots |
Windows as listed in Advisory A-29-2026 (20 August 2026). The ACP also runs NetZero slots and a Last-Minute Reservation service when a slot opens, and it can change any of these by advisory. The ACP suspended Last-Minute in August 2026 and reinstated it at the Panamax locks on 21 October 2026 (A-39-2026).
What decides how many ships can go through each day?
Three things: the level of Gatun Lake, the locks' own capacity and maintenance outages. In its monthly operations summary for September 2026 (A-38-2026, 9 October 2026), the ACP states that normal capacity is 34 to 36 vessels a day through the Panamax locks and 9 to 11 through the Neopanamax locks, with a maximum sustainable total of roughly 36 to 38 a day. It also averaged 32.6 ocean-going transits a day in September 2026, and lists scheduled lock outages that cut capacity on specific days.
The slot count is therefore a policy dial the ACP turns as the lake changes. The recent settings for booking dates, all taken from ACP advisories:
- From 4 September 2026: Neopanamax slots set at 9 a day and Panamax at 25 (A-29-2026).
- From 15 September 2026: Panamax reduced to 23 a day, for 32 in total.
- From 15 October 2026: a tenth Neopanamax slot, for 33 in total: 10 Neopanamax, 18 Super and 5 Regular (A-36-2026).
The ACP ties the Neopanamax allocation to cargo segments. Under A-36-2026, full-container ships get a minimum of 6 slots per date (spread across three TEU-capacity bands), LPG carriers a minimum of 3 per date, LNG carriers a minimum of 4 per week, and vehicle carriers, bulkers and other ships a minimum of 3 per week, plus one auction slot a day. Unused slots roll to other segments, and the minimums can be exceeded when no one else wants the slot. For a container shipper that means box ships compete with LNG, LPG, car carriers and bulkers for the same locks, though container ships hold the largest guaranteed share.
What is the Panama Canal draft limit, and why does it change?
Draft is the depth of a ship below the waterline, which rises with how much weight it carries. The canal's Neopanamax locks have a maximum authorised draft that depends on the level of Gatun Lake, so when the lake falls, ships must load lighter or take another route. The limit is expressed in Tropical Fresh Water (TFW) feet or metres.
The ACP has moved this limit several times:
- September 2023: as drought deepened, the ACP set the Neopanamax maximum at 44 ft TFW from 1 October 2023, without changing the Panamax locks' draft (Advisory A-42-2023).
- 6 August 2024: raised to 49.0 ft (14.94 m) as the lake recovered, with a new Neopanamax slot taking the canal to 35 transits a day.
- August 2026: the ACP announced cuts to 48.0 ft and then 47.5 ft because rainfall was low; it postponed both, then (A-33-2026, 4 September 2026) kept 48.0 ft in force until further notice.
- 28 September 2026: A-36-2026 set the limit back to 14.94 m (49.0 ft) "effective immediately and until further notice", citing near-average September rain and the effect of water-saving measures at the locks.
Draft is a weight limit, not a box-count limit. A ship full of light cargo may not touch the cap, while a ship loaded with dense cargo may have to leave weight behind. That is why a draft cut shows up first on heavy-cargo trades and in carriers' surcharge notices rather than as a headline slot cut.
Why the 2026 limits happened, and what the ACP says now
In Advisory A-29-2026 (20 August 2026), the ACP reported that cumulative rainfall across the watershed from May to August 2026 was 34% below the historical average and inflows 44% below, and said a forecast 2026-2027 El Niño raised concern about water for the 2027 dry season (January to April). A-36-2026 then recorded an improvement, but the ACP still wrote that the booking system remains the only guarantee of a transit date "while the water deficit continues". The ACP's fiscal 2026 summary (21 October 2026) reports 13,951 transits and says conservation measures are working. Treat the October 2026 position as a snapshot: the lake can move quickly in both directions, and the ACP states that further changes will be announced by advisory.
The 2023 to 2024 episode is the longer lesson. Trade press reported that daily transits were cut sharply in the dry season of early 2024, with figures as low as about 18 a day cited in some reports, but those schedules differ between outlets and we could not confirm every step against the ACP's own pages. What the ACP's own advisories confirm is the 44 ft cap in October 2023 and the recovery to 49 ft and 35 transits a day by August 2024.
How Panama Canal tolls are structured
Tolls are published in the ACP's official tariff (Item 1010), set by vessel type and size category. We read the version dated 1 January 2025; the ACP may have published a later one, so check its tariff page. The structure for container ships has four parts:
- A fixed charge per transit that depends on the size category and locks used. In the January 2025 tariff, a Neopanamax container ship pays $200,000 if its TEU capacity is under 10,000 and $300,000 above that.
- A charge per TEU of vessel capacity, in a range of roughly $30 to $40 per TEU depending on the category.
- A charge per loaded TEU, roughly $35 to $45, and a flat $6 per empty TEU.
- Complementary charges: reservation fees and other booking-system tariffs, and surcharges.
One surcharge is tied directly to the lake: the Fresh Water Surcharge has a fixed part and a variable part that, under Advisory A-42-2023, ranged from 0% to 10% of the vessel's total tolls depending on Gatun Lake's level the day before transit. The ACP has also set a late-cancellation surcharge of 250% of the reservation fee, which from 15 October 2026 applies to cancellations received four days or fewer before the required arrival time (A-37-2026). Bulk, LNG and LPG ships pay under different formulas (per deadweight tonne, per PC/UMS tonne or per cubic metre), so a toll figure for one ship type does not carry over to another.
Common misconception: shippers pay the tolls and book the slots
They do not. The canal's customer is the shipowner or operator. A shipper whose box moves on a carrier service never sees the ACP tariff, and cannot reserve a slot for a container. The cost reaches you through the carrier's own Panama charge, which the carrier sets, not the ACP. Examples reported by Container News in 2026: CMA CGM announced a Panama Canal Adjustment Factor of US$500 per TEU from 10 September 2026 on Far East to US East Coast and Gulf cargo, MSC announced US$149 per 20 ft, US$297 per 40 ft and US$376 per 45 ft box from 12 September 2026, citing draft restrictions, and Hapag-Lloyd announced US$155 per TEU from 17 October 2026 on Oceania to the US East Coast and Latin America. These are carrier decisions with their own timing, and Hapag-Lloyd gave no reason in the report. A surcharge does not automatically fall when the ACP relaxes a limit, so ask when each carrier will review it. Our guide to freight surcharges explains how to read these lines.
How the Panama Canal affects transit time and routing
For cargo from Asia to the US East Coast or Gulf, there are four broad options: through Panama, through Suez, around the Cape of Good Hope, or across the Pacific to a US West Coast port and then by rail or truck. Panama is often the shortest sea route for this trade, but its advantage depends on the slot situation, the draft limit and the wait for a transit date. Suez routing has been disrupted by the Red Sea crisis, and our post on Red Sea and Cape routing in 2026 covers that side of the picture. For realistic day counts by lane, use our guide to ocean freight transit times by route, and treat any Panama transit time as a range.
The ACP's September 2026 summary reports an average of 37.97 hours in canal waters and 11.59 hours in transit. Those are per-ship figures for a month in which bookings were reduced, not a promise for your cargo. Note also that a ship moving through the canal is not the same as on-time arrival at your door: a missed booking date means the ship must secure another slot, which is the delay shippers feel.
Dry bulk and gas cargoes feel the same system differently. Bulkers sit in the "other" segment with weekly minimums, and LNG and LPG carriers have their own minimums, so a bulk charterer may find slot access tighter than a container line with a LoTSA package. The ACP is launching a LoTSA Panamax pilot for transit dates from 3 January 2027, which extends advance slot allocation to the original locks for the first time (A-37-2026), with bidding on 24 November 2026.
Checklist for shipments that may use Panama
- Ask your forwarder whether the service routes through Panama, Suez, the Cape or a US West Coast landbridge, and what the schedule assumes.
- Ask whether the quote includes a Panama surcharge, when it takes effect, and how the carrier will review it.
- Check cargo weight against your carrier's guidance. Dense, heavy cargo is the first to feel a draft cut.
- Build buffer into the delivery date. A missed booking date can add days that a transit-time table will not show.
- Check the effective date and the gate-in or bill-of-lading basis on any surcharge notice.
What to do next
- Confirm the current numbers on the Panama Canal Authority's own Advisory to Shipping page before quoting any date: the draft and slot counts above are as of October 2026 and can change by advisory.
- Ask your forwarder for a quote that names the routing and lists any canal-related surcharge separately.
- Compare at least two routings for time-sensitive US East Coast cargo and decide your tolerance for variability.
- For long-term trades, ask carriers how their slot access (LoTSA or otherwise) supports the schedule they sell you.
If you are comparing routings from Asia to the US East Coast or Gulf, more than 29,300 logistics companies are searchable by country and service in the CargoLinked directory, and the public requests board lists freight that shippers have posted for forwarders to quote on directly.
This article is general information, not legal, financial or customs advice. Canal rules, slot counts, draft limits, tolls and carrier surcharges change by advisory; confirm current figures with the Panama Canal Authority and your carrier or forwarder before relying on them.
