Suez Canal boxship sweetener rebates extended
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has extended its initiative to hand out rebates to containerships coming from ports of the East Coast of merica heading to South and South East Asian ports.
According to MANA, The authority will continue to grant all containerships coming from ports north of the Port of Norfolk on the US East Coast and heading to Port Klang and ports eastwards a 45% rebate on canal tolls.
For ports south of Norfolk vessels departing and calling Port Klang and eastwards will continue to be granted a 65% rebate in tolls, while those calling Colombo and eastwards will be given a 55% rebate.
The scheme, which was introduced in March 2016 with a poor take up rate, but was extended last summer with a greater discount, and will now run until 30 June 2017.
The initiative was originally introduced to stem of loss of business from lines deciding to sail via the Cape of Good Hope on the backhaul to Asia.
Speaking in November last year, SCA executive Tamer Hammad was reported as saying revenue would reach $5.7bn in 2016, a 10% increase on the $5.17bn achieved in 2015.