Egypt’s Suez Canal to increase tolls by 5-10% starting Tuesday
Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority announced an increase of transit dues by 5 to 10 percent for laden and ballast vessels transiting the global waterway, effective starting Tuesday, 1 March 2022, as per growth in global trade and improvements in the canal’s transit services.
The decisions were made as per “the significant growth in global trade, the improvement of ships’ economics, the Suez Canal waterway’s development, and the enhancement of the transit services,” according to circulars released by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) on Sunday.
In February, the SCA increased its transit tolls for vessels travelling through the waterway by six percent.
According to the circulars, transit dues for liquefied petroleum gas, chemical tankers, and other liquid bulk tankers transiting the Suez Canal in both directions will increase by 10 percent.
The SCA will also introduce a seven percent increase for vehicles carriers, liquefied natural gas carriers, general cargo vessels, multi-purpose vessels, heavy-lift vessels, roll-on/roll-off vessels, in addition to special floating units.
A five percent increase will also be applied to petroleum product tankers, crude oil tankers, and dry bulk vessels, as per the circulars.
The Suez Canal — which connects the Mediterranean and the Red seas — is the shortest maritime route between Asia and Europe and the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.
The sea-level canal is also the longest in the world without locks, with a normal transit time from end to end of about 13 to 15 hours.
In June, the SCA started work on extending the two-way segment of the canal by 10 kilometres as part of the country’s plan to regularly improve the international waterway.
The second phase of the plan aims to widen and deepen a 30-kilometre segment of the canal by 40 metres, Chairperson of the SCA Osama Rabie said in the first news conference on the process in mid February.
Around 12 percent of the world’s trade passes through the canal, which is one of the main foreign-currency earners for Egypt, yielding more than $5 billion in revenues annually.
In 2021, the canal recorded a historic $6.3 billion in annual revenues.
It also received in 2021 its largest annual net tonnage ever — 1.27 billion tonnes — according to official figures.
