Up to 100 vessels have avoided the Suez canal in the last quarter of 2015 amid cheap oil prices.

With the lower oil prices, ships are finding that going around South Africa is cheaper than the traditional route carved out by the Suez canal.

Many vessels have often opted for the Cape of Good Hope route, but analysts in Egypt say the number is growing as low oil prices persist.

Bunker fuel, the heavy fuel ships run on, is currently very cheap. Singapore prices for such fuel have fallen from about $400 a metric tonne in May 2015 to about $150 this month, according to the UK’s BBC.

Fees for using the Suez canal are understood to be very high. Local analysts say they can be up to $350,000 a ship.

The canal’s revenues only increased by 0.14 per cent during the fiscal year of 2014-15, reaching $5.37bn compared with $5.36bn in the previous year, according to the Central Bank of Egypt.

The waterway’s performance is linked with a slowing down of global trade despite the opening of the New Suez Canal in August last year. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has projected revenues will reach $13.3bn by 2023, although international ratings agencies have said global trade would need to increase by 10 per cent a year for this to be achievable.

The Switzerland-headquartered World Trade Organisation (WTO) has lowered its growth forecast for world trade in 2015 to 2.8 per cent, from the 3.3 per cent prediction made in April, and has reduced its estimate for 2016 to 3.9 per cent from 4 per cent.

The Suez canal serves as one of Egypt’s biggest stream of hard cash revenues and if the current trend continues, Cairo could find itself in an extremely problematic situation. Egypt is currently struggling with a contraction of foreign currency inflows amid a tourism crisis and declining foreign direct investment.

MEED contacted the SCA, but it refused to comment on the recent developments.