Cargo shipped through the Panama Canal increased by 7.1 percent in the fiscal year 2011 ended Sept. 30, to set a record of 322.1 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System tons.
The new tonnage figures surpassed the previous 2007 record of 312.9 million PC/UMS tons by 2.9 percent, according to preliminary figures released Monday by the Panama Canal Authority. A PC/UMS ton is equal to 100 cubic feet of the vessel’s water displacement
The opening of the expanded canal in 2014 will increase the waterway’s capacity to more than 600 million PC/UMS tons. In fiscal 2010, the canal saw 300.8 million PC/UMS tons in throughput.
— Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.
