The study by the Institute for World Economy (IfW) on the economic benefits of the Kiel Canal suggests the creation of a flexible dues system, which includes the development of the bunker price, as a necessary and sustainable measure. This would ensure that shipping companies choose the route through the canal, according to the port of Hamburg's release.
"If shipping companies are forced to choose the route around Skagen due to cost pressure, everyone involved loses, because firstly there is no economic benefit for the Federal Republic and, secondly, the environment would be unnecessarily polluted by the longer journeys around Skagen" emphasizes Jens B. Knudsen, Chairman of the Kiel Canal Initiative.
The passage dues on the Kiel Canal are currently suspended until December 31, 2021. In order not to risk another steep drop in the Kiel Canal traffic numbers, Knudsen proposes a reduced passage due from January 1, 2022 as a temporary solution. "A tariff increase from 0% to 100% would come as a shock to the Kiel Canal," emphasizes Knudsen. The risk is omnipresent that considerable traffic in the Kiel Canal would break away and the economic benefit for the Federal Republic of Germany of annually 560 Mio Euro generated by the Kiel Canal (see IfW study, May 2021) would be noticeably reduced. In Knudsen's view, this cannot be in the interests of politics, administration and the maritime industry.
"In the long term, a flexible dues system that reacts to changes in fuel costs for ships is a very sensible and overdue solution," said the chairman of the Kiel Canal Initiative. Until then, he suggests an interim solution with a 50% reduction on the Kiel Canal passage dues.