Suez Canal Achieves Highest Annual Revenue Of $6.3 Billion & Largest Annual Net Tonnage In 2021
The Suez Canal Authority or the SCA informed Sunday that its annual revenue hit $6.3 billion in 2021, the highest mark in the canal’s history. Admiral Ossama Rabei, the SCA head, reported that last year’s revenue was up by 12.8%, compared to that of 2020 when the revenue was recorded at $5.6 billion.
In a statement, he has mentioned that 20,649 vessels passed via the canal in 2021. This was a rise of 10% compared to the 18,830 vessels that passed via the Suez Canal in 2020. Nearly 10% of world trade, including 7% of oil of the world, passes via the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. The canal that started operating from 1869 is the source of pride and foreign currency to Egypt.
The unprecedented revenue recorded in 2021 came through as the shipping industry is still facing pressure from two years of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The canal was blocked for six days in March last year when a gigantic Panama-flagged container vessel named the Ever Given had run aground in one of the most vital waterways of the world.
Lieutenant-General Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, announced today, Sunday, that the navigation statistics in the canal during the Gregorian year 2021 set new and unprecedented records throughout its history, achieving the highest annual revenue in the history of the canal amounting to 6.3 billion dollars, and the largest annual net tonnages exceeding 1.27 billion tons, exceeding So all numbers that were registered before.
The head of the authority explained that the navigation movement in the canal during the year 2021 witnessed the crossing of 20,694 ships from both directions compared to the transit of 18,830 ships during the year 2020, a difference of 1864 ships, an increase of 10%, and the total net tonnages amounted to 1.27 billion tons compared to 1.17 billion tons during the year 2020, a difference of 100 million tons. An increase of 8.5%.
He added that the Suez Canal’s revenues during the Gregorian year 2021 achieved a significant increase of 12.8% of its revenues in dollars, as the revenues of the Canal recorded 6.3 billion dollars, compared to 5.6 billion dollars during the year 2020, an increase of 720 million dollars.
The head of the authority stressed that the indicators related to the volume of trade transiting the Suez Canal (represented in net tonnages) succeeded in exceeding the rates of increase in the growth rates of global trade, despite the fact that the rate of increase in the volume of world trade transported by sea during the year 2021, according to Clarksons Expert House, amounted to 3.7%. The rate of increase in the volume of global trade passing through the canal was about 8.5%, and the volume of container trade passing through the canal increased by 7.2% during the year 2021, while the rate of increase in the volume of container trade globally reached 6% during the same period, and the increase in the volume of trade in bulk goods passing through Through the channel, 19.5% compared to 4.1%, which is the percentage of the global increase in the volume of bulk goods trade during 2021.
He pointed out that navigational reports during the Gregorian year 2021 monitored a significant increase in the transit rates of various types of ships compared to 2020, as the number of LNG carriers increased by 36.6% from 686 ships in 2020 to 937 ships in 2021, and container ships transiting the canal increased by 10.1 %, bringing the total number to 5186 container ships compared to 4710 ships during the year 2020, while the percentage of increase in the number of bulk ships reached 15.3%, by 5893 ships, compared to the transit of 5113 ships during the year 2020, which is an increase that was reflected in achieving a boom in the general indicators of transiting bulk ships as the highest rate recorded in the history of The Canal achieved the highest revenue as its revenue exceeded the one billion dollar barrier for the first time in the history of the Canal. The Suez Canal also acquired about 15.7% of the total global seaborne grain trade with a total quantity of 83.5 million tons of goods.
Lieutenant-General Rabie stressed that the indicators of performance rates during 2021 reflect the success of the flexible marketing and pricing policies pursued by the authority in gaining the confidence of the navigation community, and flexibly dealing with the changes occurring in the maritime transport industry, in light of the challenges of the emerging Coronavirus crisis, which resulted in Recording the highest rate of attraction for ships by 4,920 ships and achieving the largest revenue related to marketing policies since its application, amounting to $1.1 billion of the canal’s total revenues during 2021. Marketing efforts in general played a major role in increasing the number of ships crossing the canal for the first time and achieving an unprecedented record By crossing 1,532 ships, generating revenue of $597.6 million.
He explained that these unprecedented indicators come in parallel with achieving promising results in terms of the results of the various axes of the Authority’s ambitious development strategy 2023, which is led by the development of the navigation course, pointing in this regard to the total dredging rates in the project to develop the southern sector of the canal, which amounted to 7.6 million cubic meters of sand. saturated with water, where approximately 6.5 million cubic meters of water-saturated sand were removed in the project of duplication of the canal in the Lesser Bitter Lakes from km 122 numbering canal to km 132 canal numbering, and approximately 1.1 million cubic meters of saturated sand were removed from water in the expansion project The deepening from quantum 132 channel numbering to quantum 162 channel numbering.
Commenting on the efforts made by the authority in dealing with the challenges it faced during the year 2021, the president of the authority stressed that the Suez Canal had spared no effort to serve the global navigation community despite the challenges related to the emerging corona virus crisis, as it took the lead in solidarity with the calls and initiatives of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). To help solve the problem of replacing stranded crews due to the pandemic, by granting passenger ships carrying marine crews a 15% reduction to support the initiative.
He added that the Suez Canal succeeded in managing the crisis of delinquency of the giant Panamanian container ship EVER GIVEN efficiently and effectively, which won many international acclaim, most notably the praise of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), where the authority introduced the use of dredging for the first time in marine rescue work, and succeeded in floating the ship safely without causing any death. This is for any losses to the hull of the ship or the cargo carried on it.
The head of the authority revealed that the Suez Canal intends to adopt new work mechanisms and controls during the new year that support the preservation of the environment and are in line with the directions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce carbon emissions by adopting some new measures, including studying providing incentives for environmentally friendly ships, and discussing ways to use renewable energy. In operating monitoring stations and a number of marine units, with which the Suez Canal can be declared the “Green Canal”.
Lieutenant-General Osama Rabie concluded his statement, praising the efforts of the authority’s workers in all work sites during the past period and their success in overcoming various challenges and turning them into opportunities and successes, expressing his pride and all the authority’s employees with the full support and periodic follow-up from the political leadership of the canal projects, pledging to continue working to advance the channel and maintain Its leading position as the shortest, fastest and safest navigational way and the launch towards the future with a new vision and unprecedented thinking.
Reference: suezcanal.gov.eg
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