The Panama Canal Authority will raise daily Neopanamax-lock transits to 10 beginning Oct. 15, lifting total capacity across the Neopanamax and Panamax locks to 33 slots per day as water conditions improve.

The authority announced the change Tuesday. It also restored, effective immediately, the maximum authorized draft for Neopanamax vessels to 49 feet.

The increases rest on present and projected Gatun Lake levels, following near-average rainfall in the canal watershed and water-conservation measures at the locks.

The new allocation marks the canal's most recent easing of drought-related operating restrictions. Over the past period, the authority had cut daily transit capacity and imposed draft limits after a prolonged water shortage lowered Gatun Lake, the principal reservoir feeding the locks. The prior reductions took total daily capacity to as few as 32 ships in mid-September.

The immediate draft increase lets ships carry more cargo. A 10,000-TEU containership can lose roughly 450 TEUs of capacity for every foot of draft restriction, according to one industry estimate. Returning to 49 feet therefore recovers meaningful slot capacity on Asia-to-U.S. East Coast strings and other Neopanamax trades that route through the canal.

For carriers and shippers, the added slots and deeper draft ease a bottleneck that had forced schedule adjustments and payload cuts. The easing matters directly for U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports including New York-New Jersey, Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston, Miami, Houston and New Orleans, where delayed canal passages cascade into late berth arrivals, disrupted rail connections, chassis imbalances and unpredictable terminal workloads.

For forwarders and beneficial cargo owners, the extra three daily slots should shorten queue times and reduce reliance on costly alternatives such as Suez routings or transshipment workarounds. Still, capacity remains below the canal's historical norms, and the authority's own assessment tempers any expectation of a full return to normal operations.

Despite the added capacity and deeper draft allowance, the authority said the watershed remains in deficit. It cautioned that the transit reservation, or booking, system is still the only means of guaranteeing a crossing date. Vessels arriving without a reservation could face indefinite delays.

That warning keeps booking discipline front and center for carriers and NVOs planning canal routings. Securing slots through the auction-based reservation system remains the reliable path, while unbooked arrivals risk open-ended waiting time at anchorages.

The trajectory now depends on rainfall. With near-average precipitation already restoring both draft and slot counts, further hydrologically driven easing looks plausible — but the authority's continued deficit caution means any new cuts remain possible if the dry season drains Gatun Lake faster than projected.