Maersk turns to railway 'land bridge' to bypass Panama Canal

Danish shipping company Maersk will bypass the Panama Canal by discharging cargo on one end of the canal and then move it to the other side on trains.

PHOTO: Large container ship crossing over the Miraflores Locks in the Panama Canal. Getty Images

The cargo will then be discharged from the train at the other end of the canal and loaded onto a separate ship - instead of a single ship crossing the waterway.

"Pacific vessels will turn at Balboa, Panama, dropping off cargo heading for Latin America and North America and picking up cargo heading for Australia and New Zealand. Atlantic vessels will turn at Manzanillo, Panama, dropping off cargo heading for Australia and New Zealand and picking up cargo heading for Latin and North America," Maersk explains in a statement.

As a result of the new arrangement, Maersk said customers shipping cargoes on southbound vessels through Panama may experience delays. The company will also omit Cartagena from its "OC1" shipping route.

Customers who need to route their cargo through Cartagena will be served by alternate vessels, Maersk said.

The "land bridge" is Maersk's response to a months-long draught in the Panama Canal that has led to restrictions on the number and weight of vessels allowed to pass through the shipping route. That has led to severe congestion and caused delays in moving goods from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans.

At the same time as the Panama Canal is facing drought-related restrictions, attacks on commercial ships and heightened security concerns have hampered ship movements through another chokepoint for maritime transport: the Suez Canal.

By Debarati Bhattacharjee

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