The Panama Canal Now Costs More Than the Cargo On Board

An empty gas supertanker paid a record 4.6 million dollars just to skip the queue

Weihong Nguyen 17 Aug 2026 ·16:26

5 min read PANAMA

THE ESSENTIALS

The most expensive ship in the Panama Canal queue this month was carrying absolutely nothing.
Auction prices in August ran more than sixteen times higher than the same period a year earlier.
The Panama Canal Authority calls it a temporary market fluctuation. The queue calls it a nine day wait.
When you cut the draft, you cut the cargo. When you cut the cargo, someone invents a surcharge.
Hormuz closed, Gatun Lake dropped, and fifty miles of Panamanian water became the most expensive real estate in global trade.

The most expensive vessel in the queue at the Panama Canal this month was not carrying oil, gas, cars or containers. It was carrying nothing at all. An empty liquefied petroleum gas supertanker, the G. Arete, paid a record 4.6 million dollars through the auction system to jump the line and cross from the Pacific to the Caribbean, according to traders, brokers and a shipping report seen by Bloomberg. The vessel is owned by South Korea’s SK Shipping, which did not respond to requests for comment, and the Panama Canal…

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