Transit fees paid by crude oil and petroleum product tankers passing through Egypt’s Suez Canal will increase starting on April 1, according to the canal authority. Surcharges on these ships will be raised from 15 per cent to 25 per cent of total transit fees, the Suez Canal Authority said on its website on Tuesday. Surcharges on empty (ballast) tankers will also be raised, from 5 per cent to 15 per cent, when the new rates come into effect in April. The charges will be applied on ships travelling through the canal in both directions, the authority said. The latest increase comes after the authority raised all transit fees by 15 per cent on January 1. The increase was lower, at 10 per cent, for bulk carriers and tourist ships. While announcing January’s transit fee increases, Suez Canal Authority chief Adm Osama Rabie said that the increase was "inevitable and a necessity in light of the current global inflation rates”. The latest increase comes after the Russia-Ukraine war disrupted global supply chains and trade routes were redrawn. In March last year, the authority announced new surcharges to be levied on all ships going through the canal. The SCA has steadily increased tolls and surcharges on vessels traversing the waterway over the past couple of years. It has also announced an ambitious plan to deepen and widen stretches of the 193km waterway after the Panama-registered giant container ship <i>Ever Given</i> ran aground in the canal. The ship blocked the canal for six days in March 2021, which resulted in billions of dollars in losses for many international shipping companies. The update promises to increase two-way traffic through the canal, which currently has only a small portion wide enough for that. On Monday, shipping giant Maersk announced it was suing Evergreen, the maritime transport company that operates the <i>Ever Given</i>, over the billions of dollars it lost during the blockage of the canal. More than 12 per cent of the world's maritime traffic goes through the Suez Canal each year, making it one of Egypt's most essential sources of foreign currency.
