No Suez Canal toll increase this year

Cairo: The Suez Canal Authority chairman has confirmed transit tolls would remain "steady" in 2010 for the second straight year, but said he expected a 2.4 percent growth in the strategic waterway's revenues this year. He said that although canal revenues had decreased by 20 percent in 2009 due to battered trade volumes during the global economic slowdown, piracy off the Gulf of Aden had little impact on the waterway that is a barometer for trade worldwide.? "To support global trade movement and (help) shipping companies overcome this (financial crisis), we have decided to keep the tolls steady," Ahmed Fadel told a local news conference.  [21/01/10]