According to the authoritative Egyptian newspaper, Al Mal, the Egyptian government will allow shippers of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) on the Suez Canal to continue paying lower transit fees until June 2021.

Since April 2020, carriers travelling between southeast Asia and the United States have gotten discounts ranging between 24% and 75%, depending on their route. This is a measure in which the Egyptian government is trying to support revenues since the COVID-19 pandemic has been disrupting global trade.

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) introduced the measures to help curb the impact of the pandemic. The SCA has also reduced transit fees for large oil tankers travelling between northern Europe and southeast Asia by 48%.

Al Mal reports: “The authority granted discounts to shipping lines as marketing tools to attract ships that use other alternative routes. “[These routes are chiefly the Cape of Good Hope, and the fees are] based on a study of the costs of operating a ship’s transit voyage in the Suez Canal, compared to other alternative channels, especially since crossing these routes takes a long time without payment of Transit fees, compared with the Suez Canal.”