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-3-2011 OP’S ADVISORY TO SHIPPING No. A-04 -2011 March 4, 2011 TO : All Shipping Agents, Owners, and Operators SUBJECT: Monthly Canal Operations Summary - FEBRUARY 2011 1. Panama Canal Statistical Summary: a. Transit Pilot Force .................................................................................................283 b. Pilots in Training .................................................................................................12 c. Tugs .................................................................................................30 d. Locomotives ..................................................................................................100 2. Traffic Statistics: Daily Average High Low Arrivals 39.00 50 25 Oceangoing Transits 39.40 44 37 Canal Waters Time (hours) 32.32 41.28 23.26 In-Transit Time (hours) 10.56 12.01 9.34 Oceangoing Transits: Total Daily Average Percentage Vessels of less than 91 ́ beam 398 14.00 35.86 Vessels 91 ́ beam and over 712 25.40 64.14 Total: 1,110 39.40 Vessels 100’ beam and over 614 21.93 55.32 Vessels 900 ́ length and over 118 4.21 10.63 Booking Slots: Available Used Percentage Large Vessels (beam 91' and over) 476 444 93.28 Regular Vessels (beam less than 91') 224 198 88.39 *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, 2011 . ORIGINAL SIGNED _______________________________ Manuel E. Benitez Executive Vice President of Operations AUTORIDAD DEL CANAL DE PANAMÁ 3654 (OPXI) OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT v. 28-01-2011 OP, March 4, 2011 Subject: Monthly Canal Operations Summary - FEBRUARY 2011 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. POWERFUL DREDGER FOR THE EXPANSION PROJECT ARRIVES AT THE PANAMA CANAL In yet another move to procure only the best equipment for the expansion project, the D’Artagnan, the most powerful selfpropelled heavy duty cutter suction dredger in the world, arrived at the Panama Canal January 11th. On its arrival, the latest addition to the Panama Canal Authority’s (ACP) expansion dredging fleet made its way to the Pacific entrance, which will ultimately link the new Pacific locks with the Canal’s existing Gaillard Cut (the narrowest stretch of the Panama Canal). The D’Artagnan, is able to dredge hard rock locations that previously required drilling and blasting and will complete the dredging of the waterway’s Pacific entrance. The dredger will expand the existing Pacific entrance from 192 meters to 255 meters and deepen it to