With oil tankers avoiding the Strait of Hormuz, the Panama Canal has driven revenue increases of 10 to 15 percent since the conflict began.With oil tankers avoiding the Strait of Hormuz, the Panama Canal has driven revenue increases of 10 to 15 percent since the conflict began.
The Panama Canal is seeing a revenue bump amid the concerns driven by the Iran war as shipping companies continue to skirt the Strait of Hormuz.
Revenue at the canal has grown between 10 percent and 15 percent since the start of the conflict in late February, Panama Canal Authority (ACP) chief financial officer Victor Vialtold the Financial Times.
The revenue bump stems from an acceleration in bookings, with the ACP already confirming that one company paid $4 million to pass through the canal.
On average, the canal operator indicates that the average auction price paid to transit the waterway increased from $135,000 before the war’s outbreak to approximately $385,000 between March and April. About 80 percent of the auctions since Feb. 28 have ended in a price below $1 million.
These auctions are designated for vessels that don’t make reservations ahead of time, and open an extra three to five vessel slots daily.
In the first half of the canal’s 2025-2026 fiscal year, net earnings rose 12 percent compared from the year-prior period to $2.3 billion, with revenue coming in at $3 billion. The current revenue projection for the current fiscal year ending in September is $5.8 billion, which would represent just a 1.6 percent increase from last year’s $5.7 billion sales.
But that figure could end up higher.
“When you have a disruption in the marketplace like this, things come and go real quick—so we’re not counting the money and changing projections for the year just yet,” Vial told FT.
The Panama Canal hosts an estimated 5 percent of total global trade, the ACP says, with more than 76 percent of the cargo traveling the waterway originating in or destined for the U.S. Roughly 40 percent of all U.S. container traffic passes through the canal.
According to the ACP, there was an average of 38.7 daily transits in April, the largest such tally in more than three years. Before the war in Iran, that total hovered around 34, Vital told the FT. One day saw as many as 42 ships travel through the waterway.
Oil tankers are the top culprit for the increase as buyers seek to replace barrels originating from the Middle East with fuel from the U.S., with 74 percent more crude oil and petroleum products traveling through the canal versus April 2025, according to MarineTraffic. The 1.77 million barrels per day being carried through the waterway is the highest average since the company started tracking the data going back to 2013.
Vial said the number of oil tankers from the U.S. heading through the Panama Canal to countries such as China, Japan and South Korea had essentially doubled from an average of seven ahead of the conflict to anywhere between 12 and 14. In total, the ACP says the canal handled 324 tankers in April.
According to Vial, some of the changes could be permanent if there is too much risk in the Middle East, although it will be hard to predict an accurate shift in volumes.
“Crude tankers using the Panama Canal maybe won’t go back to seven — maybe it’ll go back to eight, nine or 10,” Vial said.
The growth in canal traffic comes as Panama remains embroiled in geopolitical controversy after the country ruled Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison’s operation of two canal-adjacent ports unconstitutional.
Panama’s foreign minister has called on a group of opposition lawmakers visiting China to deliver a firm message defending the country’s sovereignty, as tensions over a wave of detentions of Panama-flagged vessels show no signs of easing.
Javier Martinez-Acha Vasquez said on Monday that the lawmakers should relay a clear message to their Chinese counterparts on Panama’s behalf.
“I can only suggest that you convey that Panama respects China, but Panama first respects the Constitution of our country, and that therefore a court ruling must be obeyed and must not be used as a basis for any kind of economic coercion against our merchant fleet,” Martinez-Acha said.
A U.S.-led coalition including Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago asserted their support for Panama’s sovereignty in late April, calling the move “a blatant attempt to politicize maritime trade.” China barked back, calling out American history involving the Panama Canal and President Donald Trump’s rhetoric that the U.S. should take back the conduit.
