PANAMA CANAL POSTS PROFIT; SMOOTH TRANSITION SET
With cargo volumes and vessel transits up over last year, the Panama
Canal posted a $29.4 million profit for fiscal year 1999, which ended
September 30.
Toll revenues totaled $568.9 million, up 4.2 percent from a year
earlier. Cargo tonnage rose from 192.1 million long tons to 195.8 million tons.
Panama Canal Administrator Alberto Aleman Zubieta attributed the
positive results largely to a 31.9 percent increase in the number of
Panamax vessel transits to 4,198 in 1999.
Zubieta promised a seamless transition when the U.S. officially hands
over all operations of the Canal to Panama at 12 noon, December, 31, 1999.