The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) announced the change on Friday, a day after the country’s Supreme Court invalidated port contracts held by CK Hutchison.

The ruling followed repeated threats by US President Donald Trump that Washington would seek to take control of the waterway, which he claimed was effectively being controlled by China. According to the court decision annulling the contracts, CK Hutchison’s concession to operate the ports showed a “disproportionate bias” in favour of the Hong Kong-based company.

The AMP said on Friday that port operator APM Terminals, part of the Maersk Group, would assume the role of “temporary administrator” of the Balboa and Cristobal ports, located at opposite ends of the canal. Maersk replaces the Panama Ports Company (PPC), a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, which has managed the ports since 1997 under a concession renewed in 2021 for 25 years.

The Panama Canal, an artificial waterway, handles about 40% of US container shipping traffic and roughly 5 percent of global trade. It has been under Panamanian control since 1999, when the United States — which funded and built the canal between 1904 and 1914 — formally transferred control.

Washington welcomed the decision on Friday, while China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing “will take all measures necessary to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies”. PPC said the ruling “lacks legal basis” and “endangers the welfare and stability of thousands of Panamanian families” who depend on its operations.

Tens of thousands of workers dug the 82 kilometer (51-mile) passageway that became the Panama Canal, allowing ships to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans without navigating around the northernmost or southernmost ends of the Americas. Panama has consistently denied any Chinese control over the canal, which is used primarily by vessels from the United States and China. (Aljazeera)