The Suez Canal brought in $ 5.84 billion (around 4.9 billion euros) in 2020-2021, the “largest” annual revenues in the history of this crucial route for global maritime trade located in the east of Egypt, despite being blocked in March.
“Despite the various challenges, the revenues of the Suez Canal have increased considerably during the fiscal year 2020-2021 (July / June, editor’s note), rising to 5.84 billion dollars against 5.72 billion dollars in 2019 -2020 ”, which represents an increase of 2.2%, indicated in a statement the president of the Authority of the Suez Canal (SCA), Oussama Rabie.
Higher traffic for the first six months of 2021
The latter explains this success by “trade policy” and “incentive measures”, such as a reduction in rights of way, put in place by the SCA to offset the slowdown in activity due to the coronavirus pandemic.
During the first six months of 2021, maritime traffic was denser on this route, which saw 9,763 ships pass, or 2.3% more than over the same period in 2020, specifies the public establishment in its press release.
Despite six days of blockage in March with theEver Given
The announcement of this record comes less than a week after the giant container ship Ever Given which had blocked this route in March, causing a major disruption of world maritime trade, resumed its route after 100 days of immobilization.
The giant ship had recessed its bow into the east side of the passage on March 23, completely blocking traffic for six days. TheEver Given was then immobilized in the large Amer Lake, in the center of the canal, by the Egyptian authorities who demanded compensation from the shipowner.
Initially, Cairo had asked for 916 million dollars, before lowering the amount to 600 then 550 million dollars. According to SCA, Egypt lost $ 12 million to $ 15 million per day of closure and one of its employees died while the ship was refloated.
10% of world trade that goes through the canal
Located between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal handles around 10% of global maritime trade and represents a valuable source of foreign currency for Cairo. Nearly 19,000 ships used this route in 2020, according to the SCA, an average of 51.5 ships per day.