Rise in Egypt’s Suez Canal Revenue

The revenues from Egypt’s Suez Canal rose 11.2% to US$3.88 billion from Jan. 20 to Aug. 20 compared with the same period in the previous year, when revenues were at US$3.49 billion, the canal’s authority chairman, Osama Rabie, told a local TV channel on Sunday. About 15% of the world’s shipping traffic travels through the Suez Canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia. It is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt. The number of ships that passed through the Suez Canal increased in the first half of 2021 to 9,763 vessels compared with 9,546 ships during the same period last year, according to official data.

On March 23, a giant container ship Ever Given became jammed across the canal in high winds. It blocked the canal for six days. The operation to free the ship from the canal caused a backlog that delayed the journeys of hundreds of ships, forcing some to take a much longer route around the southern tip of Africa. Once it was dislodged, the 400-meter vessel left Egypt on July 7, 106 days after becoming wedged across a southern section of the waterway. Egypt released the Ever Given after protracted negotiations and an undisclosed settlement reached between the SCA and the ship’s owners and insurers.