The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has announced a 6% increase in its transit fees from February next year.
LNG carriers and cruiseships are the only ship types that will be exempt from the increase, and will continue to pay the 2021 rate.
SCA chairman Osama Rabie said that the increase was determined as part of a "balanced and flexible marketing and pricing strategy, that fulfils the authority and its clients’ interests".
He said that the rate increase took into consideration global economic conditions, and to maintain the Suez Canal as "the optimum, the fastest, and shortest choice for clients compared to the other competitive routes".
The increase also reflects the improved profitability of liner shipping during post-pandemic economic recovery. Liner companies have been reporting record profits this year on the back of an increase in trade supply chain problems.
The SCA said that the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization had forecast a 6.7% increase in seaborne trade in 2021 and 4.7% in 2022. The SCA said it is "predicting continued high levels of freight and good profits for shipping companies".
It explained that LNG carriers had been exempted because the sectors' reduction percentage had recently been reduced from 25% to 15%.
The cruise industry had been exempted because it is the sector hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The role of the Suez Canal in facilitating world trade was recently highlighted by the six-day grounding of the 20,388-teu Ever Given (built 2018), which blocked the waterway and caused widespread delays.
