Suez Canal Axis to open in August

These considerations arise amidst a significant decline in revenue, attributed to shipping companies bypassing the Canal due to attacks by Houthi militants.

Recent attacks by Iranian-backed Houti rebels on Maersk Line, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)-operated containerships in the Red Sea have thwarted hopes that ‘Operation Prosperity Guardian’ – a coalition of naval ships led by the US – would make the area safer and allow transits of the Suez Canal to return to normal.

The naval protection force assembled by 10 countries to help protect ships in the Red Sea should result in Suez Canal transits returning to some sort of normality.

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) is to raise its transit tolls by 6% from February 2022. Only LNG carriers and cruise ships will be exempt from the increases, which Osama Rabea, chairman of the SCA, said are entirely justifiable given the positive economic forecasts and envisaged strong demand for shipping services next year.

The Egyptian government has unveiled a plan to widen the 30 km southern part of the Suez Canal, where the ever given became grounded, by 40m and to deepen it by 2m to 22m. The work is expected to take two years to complete. More capacity will also be added by extending the existing 72 km double-lane central section of the canal by 8 km.

Third party liability insurer calls Suez Canal Authority’s claim for US$916M “largely unsupported”.