Suez Canal traffic slips

LNG traffic through the Suez Canal fell on the year in October, as a slight increase in northbound traffic was offset by lower southbound transit. A total of 30 laden LNG tankers, or 3.49mn t of LNG, transited the Suez Canal in October, down from 31 a year earlier, or 3.42mn t, the Suez Canal Authority reports. LNG traffic rose on the year in the previous two months. Northbound traffic rose to 21 vessels, or 2.67mn t, in October, up from 20 vessels, or 2.36mn t, a year earlier. But the number of southbound laden crossings fell to eight, or 815,000t, down from 10, or 1.06mn t, in October 2018. The fall in southbound traffic could be partly a result of the tighter differential between delivered prices in Europe and Asia-Pacific in October compared with last year, which reduced the incentive to re-export LNG from European terminals to Asian markets.

Suez canal LNG traffic mn t