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Shipping companies have paid a total of $235 million so far this year to jump ahead of the backlog at the Panama Canal, according to data from shipping agency Waypoint Port Services.

Japan’s Eneos Group paid $3.975 million in an auction Nov. 8 to jump to the front of the line at the congested Panama Canal waterway, a record high.

Dry weather is set to force large oil tankers to completely stop using the Panama Canal, requiring the vessels to extend their voyages by thousands of miles, a shipping researcher said.

The operator of the Panama Canal said there’s no immediate prospect of relief from the drought that’s reduced water levels and snarled shipping and global supply chains.

Panama Canal officials say limiting how many ships can go through the waterway could have downstream effects on U.S. trucking like slowdowns and bottlenecks.

The Panama Canal Authority proposed a comprehensive restructuring of its toll system April 1 that would increase rates charged on cargo such as vehicles, oil and gas, and soybeans that cross the waterway as ocean shippers rake in record profits.

For the fourth consecutive year, Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Panama Canal’s “A” investment grade rating with a stable outlook for its long-term issuer default rating and its senior unsecured notes, according to the Panama Canal Authority.

Port Tampa Bay completed a $63 million expansion of its Big Bend Channel a year ahead of schedule, port officials said, as the Sunshine State eyes grabbing more freight from shippers while serving a growing distribution corridor in Central Florida.

Towering over the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal, Evergreen Line’s containership Triton arrived in the predawn hours of May 24 after navigating the Chesapeake Bay carrying 14,424 containers, making it the largest container vessel to dock in Maryland.

The Panama Canal is doing so well, it got its credit rating upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service.