AUTORIDAD DEL CANAL DE PANAMÁ 3654 (OPXI) OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT v. 3-2-2011 ADVISORIES ARE AVAILABLE AT http://www.pancanal.com FOR ETAS OR DIRECT COMMUNICATION WITH OUR OFFICES, REFER TO NOTICE N-3-2012 OP’S ADVISORY TO SHIPPING No. A-04-2012 March 6, 2012 TO : All Shipping Agents, Owners, and Operators SUBJECT: Monthly Canal Operations Summary – February 2012 1. Panama Canal Statistical Summary: a. Transit Pilot Force ................................................................................................. 294 b. Pilots in Training ................................................................................................. 6 c. Tugs ................................................................................................. 32 d. Locomotives .................................................................................................. 100 2. Traffic Statistics: Daily Average High Low Arrivals 35.62 47 20 Oceangoing Transits 36.97 41 32 Canal Waters Time (hours) 26.30 38.68 16.94 In-Transit Time (hours) 10.57 13.08 8.69 Oceangoing Transits: Total Daily Average Percentage Vessels of less than 91' beam 371 12.79 34.61 Vessels 91 ́ beam and over 701 24.17 65.39 Total: 1072 36.97 Vessels 100' beam and over 591 20.38 55.13 Vessels 900' length and over 120 4.14 11.19 Booking Slots: Available Used Percentage Large Vessels (beam 91' and over) 493* 345* 1 69.98 Regular Vessels (beam less than 91') 232* 188* 1 81.03 *Does not include additional auctioned booking slots ¹ Includes booked transits only 3. The following page provides the scheduled locks maintenance work and other items of interest to the shipping community. 4. This advisory will be canceled for record purposes on March 31, 2012. ORIGINAL SIGNED _______________________________ Manuel E. Benítez Executive Vice President of Operations AUTORIDAD DEL CANAL DE PANAMÁ 3654 (OPXI) OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT v. 28-01-2011 OP, March 6, 2012 Subject: Monthly Canal Operations Summary – February 2012 1 The normal transit capacity of the Panama Canal is 38-40 vessels per day, depending on vessel mix and other factors. This capacity is reduced during locks maintenance work, as indicated in the above table. Consequently, vessels may experience delays in transiting. Normally, during these periods, the Panama Canal Transit Reservation System slots are fully utilized. Whenever a set of locks requires a major outage of one of its two lanes for dry chamber inspection, miter gate repairs, tow track work or other major maintenance/improvement projects, advantage may be taken of this requirement to perform simultaneous single lane outages for additional maintenance at other locks. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY: The Panama Canal Authority is continuously looking for ways to improve its services to world shipping. With this in mind, the ACP Operations Department will be conducting a customer satisfaction survey among local shipping agencies in March 2012. Agencies will be requested to complete the survey via electronic mail. Comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated, as they will help the ACP identify improvement opportunities and, at the same time, strengthen bonds with our customers. Panama Canal Receives Statement of Qualifications from Consortia Vying to Build New Bridge on the Atlantic side Two consortia and one company presented documentation to pre-qualify for the bid to build the bridge on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Representatives from each of the following inte