The Panama Canal had a slow start to 2018 with a 6% drop in transits on a year earlier in January. That was the first decline since November 2016 and came despite there being no major maintenance outages. Yet, volumes handled likely increased after the number of neopanamax transits reached a record of 211 vessels. That vindicates Canal Authority’s decision to increase slot availability. With utilization at 79% of available slots for neopanamax vessels, there is room for growth if shippers make further changes to their schedules. The effect of diverting traffic from Asia has waned some...