RISKS of a Suez Canal closure or slowdown can be minimised for Asia-US east coast services by increasing speed to 22 knots and going around the Cape of Good Hope, says a report from London's Drewry Maritime Research.
Drewry: Cape route can compensate for Suez slowdown with no loss of speed
RISKS of a Suez Canal closure or slowdown can be minimised for Asia-US east coast services by increasing speed to 22 knots and going around the Cape of Good Hope, says a report from London's Drewry Maritime Research.
Egyptian civil strife has threatened the Suez Canal with disruption for more than a year and the waterway now lives with the threat of terrorism from the ousted Muslim Brotherhood and its political rivals.
According to Drewry's, sudden closure could be managed, albeit at an extra cost, by going around the Cape with ship speeds rising to 22 knots, but well within their top cruising speed of 24 - 25 knots. Speeds have been reduced in recent years through slow-steaming to cut fuel burn.
But as it stands, the latest canal transit times average 12-16 hours using its convoy system, which moves at between 11 and 16 knots. The Mediterranean is not exactly a speedway.
Trade through the Suez continued to be upbeat since re-routing of vessels from Panama since May when Asian volumes were going to the east coast of North America, the other way around the world.