Danish shipping logistics company A. P. Moller-Maersk A/S has acquired a railway connecting seaports on both sides of the Panama Canal, limiting the U.S. presence on a key trade route. This is reported in a press release from Maersk.

As part of the deal, the port operator Maersk APM Terminals acquired the Panama Canal Railway Company from a joint venture controlled by Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and the American Lanco Group.

From the point of view of APM Terminals, the railway "represents an attractive investment in the region's infrastructure as part of the provision of intermodal container transportation services."

The deal is aimed at optimizing CPKC's portfolio for the development of its core railway business in North America as part of a network connecting Canada, the United States and Mexico.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For months, Donald Trump has opposed increasing Chinese influence in the Panama Canal, calling the transfer of control of the canal to the Panamanian government a "failed deal." In March 2025, BlackRock Inc. submitted an offer to acquire two ports on both sides of the Panama Canal from Hong Kong's C.K. Hutchison for $19 billion, but the proposed deal has faced opposition from the Chinese government and may be postponed.

The Panama Canal Railway Company operates a seventy-six-kilometer railway running parallel to the Panama Canal and connecting the seaports on both sides of the Panama Canal. The capacity of the railway is about 2 million TEU, taking into account the two-tier arrangement of containers. The headquarters is located in Panama.

Maersk is a Danish shipping company in the maritime cargo transportation and port terminal maintenance sector. The headquarters is located in Copenhagen (Denmark) with representative offices and subsidiaries with a staff of 100,000 employees in 135 countries. In 2024, Maersk ranked second in the world with a 14.6% share in the container shipping market.