The Panama Canal system is composed of two lock systems, the old locks (completed in 1914) and the expanded locks (completed in 2016 as an expansion of the canal with two new locks). On the Atlantic side, the Gatun (1914) and Agua Clara (2016) locks link the Caribbean Sea and Lake Gatun. On the Pacific side, the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks (1914) and the Cocoli Locks (2016) link Lake Gatun to the Pacific Ocean. The Culebra Cut (Gaillard Cut) represents the continental divide line and was the main capacity restriction of the canal system since it could only transit one ship at a time before the expansion.
After the 2016 expansion, the Culebra Cut was able to accommodate two ships at once. To supply this lock system, a large amount of water is required, a purpose fulfilled by the artificially created Lake Gatun, which is controlled by the Gatun Dam and supplied by the Alajuela Lake. The Panama Canal Railway runs parallel to the canal and is designed to absorb the extra traffic generated by ships that are too large to use the facilities. It also moves containers between the Atlantic and Pacific terminals without the need to pay the canal toll. The Panama Canal is under the jurisdiction of the Panama Canal Authority, which controls an area that used to be called the Panama Canal Zone, an extraterritorial entity that was controlled by the United States until its retrocession to Panama in 1999.
Both the Pacific and Caribbean sides of the canal have seen the development of significant port transshipment facilities since the 1990s, with Panama acting as a major transshipment hub in the region. Still, additional terminal facilities are planned by the Panama Canal Authority. The main container terminal facilities include:
- On the Atlantic side, Manzanillo International Terminals (MIT) became the first concession in 1995 and is operated by SSA Marine. Colon Container Terminal was concessionned in 1997 and is operated by the Taiwanese consortium Evergreen. The Port of Colon is operated by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) under Panama Ports Company (PPC) and has been a concession since 1997 as well (concession renewed in 2021 for an additional 25 years). An agreement was reached in 2016 with a Chinese consortium to build the Panama Colon Container Port (PCCP), a post-Panamax facility with an expected capacity of 2.5 million TEU. However, the concession was revoked in 2021 as the consortium was found not complying with the contract terms. The project remains incomplete and delayed, with a new concession signed in 2022 with Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), a branch of the shipping giant MSC.
- On the Pacific side, the Port of Balboa is operated by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) under Panama Ports Company (PPC) and has been a concession since 1997 (concession renewed in 2021 for an additional 25 years). PSA Panama International Terminal was opened in 2011 and operated by PSA International (Port of Singapore Authority), adding 2 million TEU in capacity. In 2016, the Panama Canal Authority issued a request for proposals to global terminal operators for the Corozal Container Terminal project. The two phases of the project would add 5.3 million TEU of capacity. However, after pre-qualification, no bidder emerged to take over the project, which is on hold.
All of the above confers Panama the status of one of the most important container terminal clusters in the Americas.