The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) is in talks with global shipping firms to propose a new payment system. Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk is considering a new payment method proposed by the authority for a new toll system, the spokesman for the company's Maersk Line shipping arm said, confirming that advance payments were under discussion. The authority Chairman Mohab Mamish said that it was now looking to levy charges three-five years in advance in exchange for a 3% discount. Talks with Maersk, Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. and France's CMA CGM were going well, and that an agreement on a new system for early-2017 might be reached as early as next week, he said. (Reuters)