Panama Canal to Increase Number of Booking Slots

The Panama Canal will increase the total number of vessels authorized to pass through the waterway to 34 per day following rains that have allowed water levels to recover, its authority said late on Monday.

The new slots will be effective in July. The maximum draft for ships transiting the canal's largest locks will also be increased to 46 feet starting in mid June, the authority added in a statement.

The numbers represent an increase from a total of 32 vessels currently authorized to pass per day, and a maximum draft of 45 feet through the largest locks that would be effective on June 15, according to announcements made by the canal in May.

Increased rainfall in recent months has allowed the canal, the world's second-largest, to replenish its watershed, leading to an increase in transits that had been severely restricted last year amid a drought.

The way's authority is in talks with producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the United States to secure passage for that vessel category, it said last month.

(Reuters - Reporting by Elida Moreno, Marriana Parraga and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Gabriel Araujo)