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How much of Panama’s trade passes through the Panama Canal?

In 2024, an estimated $2.8 billion of Panama’s trade passed through the Panama Canal, 9.8% of its seaborne trade. That is $173 million of exports and $2.6 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are Ecuador, China and South Korea.

Summary

Estimated value
$2.8billion
Of its seaborne trade
9.8%
Exports
$173million
Imports
$2.6billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

Panama’s estimated trade through the Panama Canal fell 15% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • Panama 2.8

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$2.2 billion14.4%
1996$2.2 billion13.5%
1997$2.2 billion14.2%
1998$1.9 billion12.7%
1999$1.9 billion12.1%
2000$1.8 billion12.1%
2001$1.6 billion12.6%
2002$1.4 billion11.5%
2003$1.5 billion10.9%
2004$1.9 billion11.1%
2005$2.1 billion11%
2006$3 billion11.2%
2007$3.4 billion11%
2008$4.9 billion12.2%
2009$4 billion10.6%
2010$4.9 billion10.8%
2011$5.2 billion10.3%
2012$4.4 billion9%
2013$3.2 billion7.6%
2014$2.6 billion6.9%
2015$2.3 billion7.6%
2016$2.4 billion8.6%
2017$2.9 billion10%
2018$3.1 billion10.4%
2019$3.3 billion10.4%
2020$2.4 billion10.2%
2021$2.9 billion10.2%
2022$3.2 billion8.5%
2023$2.9 billion10.1%
2024$2.8 billion9.8%

Partners whose trade crosses it

Estimated value of its trade with each partner that crosses the chokepoint; the percentage is the share of all its trade through the chokepoint, not of the pair’s trade.

  1. Panama–Ecuador$924 million · 33.5%
  2. Panama–China$870 million · 31.5%
  3. Panama–South Korea$230 million · 8.3%
  4. Panama–United States$189 million · 6.9%
  5. Panama–Japan$142 million · 5.1%
  6. Panama–Peru$104 million · 3.8%
  7. Panama–Thailand$47 million · 1.7%
  8. Panama–Costa Rica$39 million · 1.4%
  9. Panama–Mexico$37 million · 1.3%
  10. Panama–Chile$35 million · 1.3%

What crosses it

The products with the highest estimated value in 2024, with their share of the total through the chokepoint.

  1. Crude petroleum$918 million · 33.3%
  2. Cargo and cruise ships$621 million · 22.5%
  3. Refined petroleum$201 million · 7.3%
  4. Cars$92 million · 3.3%
  5. Dredgers and floating cranes$65 million · 2.4%
  6. Diodes, transistors and solar cells$17 million · 0.63%
  7. Transformers and power supplies$16 million · 0.59%
  8. Pesticides and herbicides$14 million · 0.51%
  9. Cranes$14 million · 0.5%
  10. New tires$13 million · 0.46%

Reference ports

Balboa (81%) and Colón (19%)

Each port with the weight it receives from the country’s trade, based on where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest.

Sources and method

Sources and licenses

Methodology

We estimate the value crossing each chokepoint from BACI trade that travels by sea according to our mode heuristic, split between each country’s ports by where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest, and routed over our own sea network. It is an estimate, not a count of ships. It covers 99.9% of seaborne trade. The approach follows Verschuur, Lumma and Hall (Nature Communications, 2025). Data up to 2024.

All maritime chokepoints