Suez Canal offers second toll
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has offered another sweetener to cost-conscious VLCC operators tempted to sail around Cape Horn en-route to the Arabian Gulf to avoid its tolls.
According to MANA, A 45% reduction from the applicable canal transit tolls, excluding other services dues, is being offered to VLCCs over 200,000 dwt ballasting from the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the north coast of South America to the Middle East .
In a fresh blow to the SCA, Maersk Line is the latest player to reconfigure its Asia-US East Coast service. Maersk’s is to deploy 11 of its 8,500 boxships on the new TP12 round-the-world route which transits the Suez just once (on the return leg to Asia) instead of both ways as before.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the widened Suez Canal last year, a project designed to double daily traffic and increase annual revenue to more than $13bn by 2023.