The fee increases constitute a 5% hike for oil and petrochem tankers, a 2% increase in container and car carrier fees, and 3% for other vessels. The move is likely fuelled by a slowdown on Asia-Europe trades as well as pirate activity, as well as the cost of security at canal ports given local unrest.
"The effect of these increases will be to give a spur to those owners who may already be considering the Cape route as a serious alternative," ICS chairman Peter Hinchliffe noted in March of this year.
However, the canal recently saw record traffic on 23 March, consisting of 3.8m tonnes of cargo in a single day.the Suez Canal remains a vital source of income for struggling Egypt, from $36bn in mid-January to $13.5bn. Earlier this year, BIMCO’s Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst, said bunker fuel prices would need to be below $390 a tonne before it became financially viable for a standard container ship to re-route around the Cape of Good Hope.
"The massively high fuel price plays the full advantage into the hands of the Suez Canal," Sand said.
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