Ship Pays $4 Million to Cut the Line at Panama Canal

By Lucia Kassai and Ruth Liao (Bloomberg) —

A container ship paid $4 million to cut the line at the Panama Canal, where wait times are stretching more than a week, as vessels seek alternative routes because of the Iran war. 

The near-record high auction figure was paid by the owner of the container ship, the Seaspan Benefactor, according to people familiar with the matter who could not be identified because the auction data is private. 

Seaspan did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

While typical transits through the waterway are paid by a flat rate via reservations, the