In Port News 09/08/2016
At a press conference in relation to the one year anniversary of the expanded canal, Mohab Mameesh, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, stressed that the revenue had increased despite the lower global trade.The expansion of the Suez Canal, which was launched in August last year, cost USD 8 billion altogether and aims to double the traffic on the popular waterway, with the ambition to raise the annual revenue to more than USD 13 billion ahead of 2023.
Discounts
This means, for example, that container vessels which sail from Norfolk or to ports north of Norfolk in the direction of Port Kelang in Malaysia or ports east of this, have to pay 45 percent less to sail through the Suez Canal, announced the Suez Canal Authority in a circular at the beginning of July.
Source: Shipping Watch
The Suez Canal in Egypt, which together with the Panama Canal in Central America makes up the shipping industry’s two vital shortcuts, has thus far in 2016 experienced a slightly higher revenue than the same period last year.
Specifically, the canal’s turnover increased to USD 3.18 billion in the period from January 1st up to and including August 6th 2016, an increase of four percent from USD 3.05 million in the same period in 2015, writes Reuters.
However growth has moved slowly thus far, either noting disappointing declines or showcased moderate growth rates since the extended channel began operation, writes the news bureau.
The Suez Canal has, in the last few months, and partly in an attempt to counter competition from the opening of the expanded Panama Canal, offered several big discounts to owners in order to attract more ships to the Egyptian canal.
This is in order to “meet the desires of managers and operators who make use of the Suez Canal, as well as for more ships to choose the canal,” wrote the authority.
Source: Shipping Watch
