Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority said that the key waterway netted record revenues last year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and a six-day blockage by the giant cargo ship Ever Given.
Connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the canal accounts for roughly 10 percent of global maritime trade and is a source of much-needed foreign currency for Egypt.
About 1.27 billion tonnes of cargo were shipped through the canal last year, earning US$6.3 billion in transit fees, 13 percent more than in 2020, and the highest figures ever recorded, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) managing director Osama Rabie said.
Photo: Reuters
The number of ships using the canal rose from 18,830 in 2020 to 20,694 last year, or more than 56 ships per day, the SCA said in a statement.
In March, the Ever Given super tanker — a behemoth with deadweight tonnage of 199,000 — became stuck diagonally across the canal during a sandstorm.
A salvage operation took six days to dislodge it, in which one employee of the SCA died. Egypt lost up to US$15 million each day during the canal closure, the SCA said.
The Ever Given safely returned through the canal in August.
In November, the SCA said that it would hike transit tolls by 6 percent starting this year, but tourist vessels and liquefied natural gas carriers are exempt from the new levy.
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