G. Arete Pays $4.6 Million to Skip Panama Canal Queue as Iran War Chokes Transit

2 articles · Updated · Yahoo Finance · Aug 14

$4.6 million won G. Arete an auction slot to bypass the Panama Canal queue next week, sending the empty LPG supertanker from the Pacific to the Caribbean side.
War-driven shifts in energy trade and lower canal water levels have tightened capacity, pushing customers to pay millions for priority passage instead of standard reservations.
The payment topped the roughly $4 million paid earlier this week by a container ship, underscoring how sharply congestion costs have risen.
Argus Media data show some Neopanamax vessels without booked slots have waited up to 11 days for Pacific-to-Atlantic passage, the longest delay since May.
The squeeze matters because the canal is the shortest route for US LPG shipments to East Asia, making disruptions there a direct hit to redrawn energy flows.