The Panama Canal's expansion project could put more panamax-sized vessels out of work as the widening of the waterway reinforces the trend towards bigger containerships.
Panamax vessels with a maximum beam of 32.3 metres used to be the largest ships that were able to transit the canal because of the width restrictions of its locks.
The fact that containerships of up to 13,000 TEU will be able to transit the canal once the building of the third set of locks has been completed, compared with the current limitation of 5,100 TEU, means that US east coast ports are gearing up to handle larger ships and extra volumes.
Furthermore, both shippers and shipping lines are hoping to benefit from the increased economies of scale that the larger ships will bring.
Panamax-sized containerships have been under pressure for some time with data from Lloyd's List Intelligence showing that for much of last year the panamax vessel segment had the most inactive capacity as ships of that size could not find deployment.
The panamax sector had the highest amount of inactive tonnage in 39 of the 52 weeks in 2013, according to the Shipping Gazette.
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