According to the forecasts contained in the balance sheets, some 13,900 ships will cross the track between the Pacific and the Atlantic with 520 million tons of cargo.
The Panama Canal, recovering after a drought, projects a record income of $5.623 million in fiscal year 2025, according to the budget approved Tuesday by the Panamanian Congress.
The infrastructure is also expected to contribute $2.789 million to the national treasury, an unprecedented figure for the Panamanian interoceanic waterway, inaugurated by the United States in 1914.
The accounts for the next fiscal year of the channel, which runs from October 1 to September 30, 2025, were unanimously approved in Congress.
According to the forecasts contained in the balance sheets, some 13,900 ships will cross the track between the Pacific and the Atlantic with 520 million tons of cargo.
Channel revenue comes from the collection of tolls, the sale of electricity and maritime services. About half goes to operations and maintenance, while the remaining money will stop at the Panamanian treasure.
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP), an autonomous public entity, prepares the budget for the maritime road, which should then be endorsed by legislators.
The accounts for this new fiscal year were approved Tuesday in the midst of the recovery of the channel after a drought attributed to the El Niño phenomenon.
The shortage of rains forced in 2023 to restrict the daily passage of ships from 38 to 22, but with the increase in rainfall this year the canal has increased the transit of ships to 35.
Despite the reduction of ships, revenues have not been affected, according to the authorities, by the implementation of various measures, including new tariffs and auctions of preferential quotas.
“We have also sought to be more efficient in our operation without affecting the operation or operation of the channel,” Canal Affairs Minister Jose Ramón Icaza recently told AFP.
For his part, the road manager, Ricaurte Vásquez, recently told the AFP that he estimates that “by the end of the year” the situation is “back to normal if the pattern of rains continues.”
The 80-kilometre Panama Canal connects more than 1,900 ports in 170 countries. Its biggest users are the United States, China, Japan and South Korea. It is estimated that 5 per cent of global maritime trade passes the Panamanian route.
Since it passed into Panama on December 31, 1999, the channel has delivered more than $25.7 billion to the treasury. It accounts for 6% of GDP and one fifth of current income in Panamanian coffers.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo