The Panama Canal's previous cargo record was 518 tonnes, set in the 2022 fiscal year. (EPA Images pic)PANAMA CITY: The Panama Canal has set a record for cargo transits, buoyed by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Middle East war, the waterway's operator told AFP on Tuesday.
The canal – which handles an estimated 5% of global maritime trade – saw 521 million tonnes of cargo pass through on nearly 14,000 ships in the last fiscal year, which ran from October 2025 to the end of September, authorities said.
Canal administrator Ilya Espino de Marotta said there was a "boom" in ship traffic over the course of the year after the throttling of the Hormuz Strait, through which around 20% of the world's oil and gas normally passes.
