Further Panama Canal extension mooted

“Within 15 years there will be a need to build a fourth sets of locks, if demand continues as it is,” he said, adding that 2025 is his best guess for when this will become necessary.

According to Mr Quijano, a small group of experts has been put together to undertake the necessary technical and demand studies.

He observed: “The world is more connected every day and the maritime option is the least costly and least contaminating, and for this reason our route becomes more effective.”

For the current fiscal year (1 October 2016 – 30 September 2017), the Canal Authority calculates that traffic will rise to 391m tonnes compared with 330m tonnes in the previous year.