{"id":122237,"date":"2026-03-13T23:02:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/899288804"},"modified":"2026-03-13T23:02:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:02:32","slug":"panama-asks-chinese-shipping-giant-cosco-to-return-to-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/panama-asks-chinese-shipping-giant-cosco-to-return-to-canal\/","title":{"rendered":"Panama asks Chinese shipping giant Cosco to return to Canal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PANAMA CITY – Panama\u2019s government on March 13 asked Chinese shipping giant Cosco to reconsider its suspension of operations at a Panama Canal port, the latest fallout from an ongoing disagreement between the United States and China over the waterway\u2019s oversight. <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, state-owned Cosco, which owns one of the world\u2019s largest tanker fleets, said it would suspend operations at the Balboa port after a court annulled a contract<\/span><\/a> that had allowed a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings to operate both terminals since 1997. <\/p>\n

Panamanian authorities took back control of the trans-oceanic waterway on Feb 23, and Minister for Canal Affairs Jose Ramon Icaza told reporters \u201cthe Cosco issue really took us a bit by surprise\u201d.<\/p>\n

China had threatened Panama with payback after the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cCosco\u2019s cargo is certainly important for Panama and we hope they reconsider the decision not to use the port of Balboa,\u201d Mr Icaza said. <\/p>\n

He added that Cosco\u2019s cargo \u201caccounts for 4 per cent of the port\u2019s throughput, it is a significant volume and we hope it will eventually return\u201d.<\/p>\n

Almost 10 million containers passed through Panama\u2019s ports last year.<\/p>\n

The Central American country has been swept up in broader tensions between Washington and Beijing, with US President Donald Trump last year claiming, without providing evidence, that China effectively runs the canal.<\/p>\n

Panama has always denied Chinese control over the 80km waterway, which is used mainly by the United States and China. AFP <\/p>\n

COSCO<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… on March 13 asked Chinese shipping<\/span> giant Cosco to reconsider its … the court\u00e2\u0080\u0099s decision. \u00e2\u0080\u009cCosco\u00e2\u0080\u0099s cargo<\/span> is certainly important for Panama … . He added that Cosco\u00e2\u0080\u0099s cargo<\/span> \u00e2\u0080\u009caccounts for 4 per cent …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}