Chinese shipping giant COSCO Shipping has officially suspended its operations at the Port of Balboa, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.
While COSCO has not publicly specified the exact reason or the expected duration of the suspension, the move is already requiring immediate logistics adjustments for regional shippers.
According to a client notice published by the local newspaper La Prensa, COSCO is actively redirecting its equipment. Shippers can no longer return empty containers to the Balboa facility. Instead, all empties must now be routed to either the Manzanillo International Terminal or the Colon Container Terminal, both located in Colon province.
This sudden operational shift comes on the heels of major regulatory upheaval at the canal. In late January, Panama’s Supreme Court annulled key port operating contracts previously held by the Panama Ports Company (PPC), a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison.
Following the contract annulment and the subsequent government seizure of the facility, APM Terminals (a unit of Maersk) stepped in to manage temporary daily operations at Balboa for a transitional period of up to 18 months.