Suez Canal Revenues Hit All-Time Document

A cargo ship sails through the town of Ismailia, Egypt, March 30, 2021. Egypt’s Suez Canal said Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, that its annual revenues reached $6.3 billion last year, the highest in the crucial waterway's history.

A cargo ship sails by the city of Ismailia, Egypt, March 30, 2021. Egypt’s Suez Canal stated Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, that its annual revenues reached $6.3 billion final 12 months, the best within the essential waterway’s historical past.

AP Photograph/AP Photograph/Ayman Aref, File

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Suez Canal stated Sunday its annual revenues reached $6.3 billion final 12 months, the best within the essential waterway’s historical past.

Admiral Ossama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, stated final 12 months’s revenues rose 12.8%, in comparison with 2020, when the canal achieved $5.6 billion.

He stated in a press release that 20,649 vessels flowed by the Suez Canal final 12 months, a rise of 10% in comparison with 18,830 vessels in 2020.

About 10% of worldwide commerce, together with 7% of the world’s oil, flows by the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Crimson seas. The canal, first opened in 1869, is supply of nationwide satisfaction and overseas foreign money to Egypt.

The unprecedented 2021 revenues got here because the transport trade remains to be below stress from two years of the coronavirus pandemic.

The canal, one of many world’s most important waterways, was blocked for six days in March when a large Panama-flagged container ship, the Ever Given, ran aground within the single-lane stretch of the waterway.