Panama City port and ships, live
Panama City lies on the Panama Canal, one of the ten chokepoints where the map counts the ships going through.
The harbour
The Index rates Balboa a medium-sized harbour on a canal or lake. It lists container berths, ramps for roll-on, roll-off ships, dry bulk berths, liquid bulk berths, an oil terminal, general cargo berths, yards for major repairs and a dry dock there. It takes ships up to 369 m long, through a channel at least 15.5 m deep. A vessel traffic service watches the approaches.
Harbours within 10 km
- Balboa7 km from the centreMedium-sized harbour
What the live map can see
In 24 hours of AIS recorded Oct 12 – 19, the map heard no ship within 10 km of Balboa: the receivers TAKIP draws on don’t reach here, so its ships won’t show.
Good to know
- NGA’s World Port Index rates a harbour by its area, facilities and wharf space when it was last surveyed, not by its traffic, so a busy terminal can be rated small. Where it doesn’t know about a facility it says so, and only what it marks as there is listed here.
- AIS is heard by receivers on shore, so coverage follows where they are: ships far out at sea, or off coasts without one, don’t show. Warships and some others switch it off, and a ship’s type and destination are typed in by its crew.
- Harbours from NGA’s World Port Index (Pub. 150), downloaded on Oct 19, 2026. The major ports and chokepoints are the map’s own reference list.
How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Live ship tracker, Shipping chokepoints