CAIRO, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Suez Canal Authority (SCA) on Thursday announced it will increase the tolls for ships transiting through the canal by 6 percent in 2022.
"This planned increase will be applied from the next February with the exclusion of cruise and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) ships," SCA Chairman Osama Rabie said.
He stressed the SCA's keenness to apply a balanced and flexible marketing and pricing strategy that fulfills the interests of the authority and its clients.
The increase was subject to extensive studies and estimations, he said, citing the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s forecast that the global economy will grow by 5.9 percent in 2021 and 4.9 percent in 2022.
Rabie added that the IMF and the World Trade Organization also expected continued growth in world trade traffic and a rise in the demand for maritime transport, up by 6.7 percent and 4.7 percent in 2022 respectively, thereby predicting continued high levels of freights and profits for shipping companies.
He explained that maintaining the transit fees of LNG vessels comes after the continuous follow-up on the most recent variables of the LNG seaborne trade.
Rabie pointed out that stabilizing the transit fees for cruises is mainly because this type of vessel was the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic compared with other vessels.
Linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, the Suez Canal was officially opened for international navigation in 1869, serving as a lifeline for global seaborne trade since it allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa. Enditem