According to Lars Jensen, leading expert in the container shipping industry, the first ultra-large container vessel is now by-passing Suez by going the long way around Africa instead. At the time of writing this, the CMA CGM Alexander Humboldt is located west of Africa as its journey from Algeciras to Port Klang on the FAL-1 services bypasses Suez and instead takes the long detour around Africa. The trip is normally scheduled for 21 days but will in this case take 26 days.
The trip is more than 3000 nautical miles longer and the speed is increased by more than 2 knots for the journey despite the added 5 days to the schedule. A very rough approximation would mean they use 1000 ton extra fuel. The vessel is equipped with a scrubber and could have bought fuel at 200 USD/ton. Hence an extra cost of 200.000 USD.
But they save the Suez Canal tolls which would likely be in the ballpark of 4-500.000 USD. The canal already has a 45-65% discount scheme for USEC vessels to prevent re-routing. A few days ago they announced a 6% discount for European vessels – but as is evident with the CMA vessel that is not sufficient to prevent round-Africa routings.
