Suez Canal generates record revenues despite COVID-19 and Ever Given

Revenues last year reached US$ 6.3 billion, the highest ever. The net tonnage was 1.27 billion, up over 2020. Despite the accident in March that blocked the canal for almost a week, some 20,694 ships transited through the waterway, way up compared to 18,830 in 2020.

Cairo (AsiaNews) – Egypt earned US$ 6.3 billion from the Suez Canal in 2021, the highest in the history of one of the most important transit routes in the world.

Official Egyptian data released today show record revenues, this despite the critical state of the world economy because of COVID-19 pandemic and the Ever Given accident last March, which blocked the canal for over almost a week.

According to Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), growth in 2021 is linked to a “significant increase in the transit rates of various types of ships compared to 2020”.

The net tonnage was “over 1.27 billion tonnes", a figure that exceeds “everything registered before,” including 2020 when it was 1.17 billion tonnes.

A total of 20,694 ships sailed through the canal, in both directions, compared to 18,830 ships in 2020, an increase of 10 per cent.

Rabie noted that revenues from the Suez Canal rose by 12.8 per cent in 2021 to US$ 6.3 billion, up from US$ 5.6 billion in 2020.

“The number of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) carriers increased by 36.6 per cent, up from 686 ships in 2020 to 937 ships in 2021," he added.

Toll fees for the ships transiting through the canal will rise by 6 per cent next month.

The record numbers confirm the strategic value of one of the main transit routes for international trade, which grew despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ever Given accident on 24 March 2021.

When the container ship ran aground, it blocked traffic for six days, leading SCA to claim US$ 916 million in damages from the ship’s owners, an amount eventually reduced to US$ 600 million.

• egypt
• suez canal
• revenues
• ever given incident
• growth
• pandemic
• covid-19