New Delhi, Oct. 17 -- The Panama Canal gave its biggest ships a tenth daily booking slot beginning Thursday, but sending grain from the U.S. Gulf to Japan still costs far more than it did a year ago.

Gulf-to-Europe grain averaged $22.54 in the third quarter, 8 percent less than a year earlier. Fuel is part of the Pacific squeeze. The report has U.S. diesel at $6.179 a gallon, 251 cents higher than a year ago and about 35 cents under the record diesel prices TEH reported in September.

The canal's own paperwork shows how small the relief is. Its September 28 advisory lifts the Neopanamax locks from nine slots a day to ten for bookings from October 15, which makes 33 across both lock sets after a September cut to 32. It also lets ships loa...