Transit Date Advancement Fee for all Market Segments

Panama Flash! – Panama City – May 7^th, 2024

Ref. Transit Date Advancement Fee for all Market Segments & Tug Assistance for Neopanamax Vessels while navigating under Bridge of Americas.

The Panama Canal regulations establish that a booked vessel may transit prior to its reserved transit date, if the transit date advancement has been approved by the ACP, or if the ACP determines that assigning the transit date advancement promotes operational efficiency.

Effective immediately, the ACP may offer a transit date advancement of two days or more to booked vessels from all market segments and vessel categories (Neopanamax, Super or Regular) based on booking date, Panama Canal ETA/arrival, vessel mix, Canal capacity and other operational factors. Once accepted by the vessel and the service is offered, the corresponding transit date advancement fee will be applied as per Official Maritime Tariff. The transit advancement will still maintain the 14-day limitation between the booked date and transit date.

In the event the vessel with a transit date advancement approved by the ACP cancels, is unable to initiate or complete its transit due to any reason attributable to the vessel, changes its booking date to a later date or to a date prior to the transit advancement date, the transit date advancement fee will be applied according to the established tariff. If the booked vessel with a transit date advancement approved by the ACP swaps booking with another vessel, the transit date advancement will be transferred to the other vessel involved in the swap.

Booked full container vessels may request a transit date advancement two days or more prior to the intended transit date. This request shall be submitted between 0700 hours and 1000 hours, between 10 and 2 days prior to the requested transit date. Requests submitted after 1000 or before 0700 hours will not be accepted nor processed. Full container vessels with an approved transit date advancement request shall have priority over a vessel that was offered a transit date advancement when scheduling the transit advancement.

All booked full container vessels transit date advancement requests received between 0700 and 1000 hours will be considered as received at the same time. When two or more requests are received on the same day for the same transit date, or to determine which vessel the transit date advancement will be offered to, the assignment of the slot will be based on the following order:

• Vessel with the earliest booking date
• Vessel having a port call at any terminal in Canal waters or adjacent to them prior to transit.
• Vessel having a port call at any terminal in Canal waters or adjacent to them after transit.
• Vessel with the earliest ETA/arrival

Whenever there is more than one vessel with a transit date advancement request approved for the same date and if for any reason the ACP is not able to provide the service to all vessels, the order to determine the vessel(s) that will maintain the transit date advancement will be the same order used to assign the transit date advancement slot. The same condition will apply whenever two or more vessels accept a transit date advancement offer.

Summary:

• Transit advancement now will be avaialble for booked vessels of all market segments.
• Booked Full container vessels may request transit advancement date.
• Other Market segments can only be advanced if it is offered by the ACP and the corresponding transit advancement tariff will apply.

Tug Assistance for Neopanamax Vessels while navigating under Bridge of Americas

With the purpose of promoting navigational safety in the channel entrances of Panama Canal, effective April 24^th, 2024,  the Panama Canal is requiring an escort tug for all Neopanamax Docking or undocking from any Balboa terminal while navigating under the Bridge of the Americas.

Tug assistance for docking and undocking maneuvers at local port terminals in the Pacific area is facilitated by commercial tug companies rather than the Canal Authority. Additional maneuvering hours may be subject to the terms outlined in individual tariff agreements with these companies.

Neopanamax vessels in transit while navigating under the Bridge of Americas, the escort tug will have no additional cost.

For additional information, please reach out to our operators at operations@nortonlilly.com.pa

Norton Lilly International (Panama) S.A.

Bldg. 3825  – Office 204

Howard – Panama-Pacifico

Panama, Rep. of Panama

Tel: (507) 304-4600

Main email: operations@nortonlilly.com.pa  (24 hours)