The head of the Panama Canal Authority, Ricaurte Vasquez, said the waterway would opt for reducing daily transits if needed, before planning any further cut to authorized vessel draft, which affects shippers the most.

Passage restrictions are not planned for this month. But in its budget for the fiscal year beginning October, the canal foresees a possible cut to 30-31 daily transits, he added.

The El Niño weather phenomenon "has been very severe this year. We have hot temperatures in the Pacific and the Atlantic simultaneously," Vasquez told journalists in a briefing. "We anticipate that in the upcoming months, in the absence of significant rain, we'll have to be prepared."