CAIRO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's revenues from the Suez Canal have risen by 4.7 percent since the opening of its new extensions five years ago, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Osama Rabie said on Thursday.

"The canal revenues rise to 27.2 billion U.S. dollars during the last five years, compared with 25.9 billion dollars in 2010-2015," Rabie said in a press conference.

He added that 90,000 ships carrying 5.5 billion tonnes of cargo have crossed the Suez Canal in 2015-2020, up from 86,600 ships with 4.6 billion tonnes in the previous five years.

Navigation reports since the beginning of 2020 until August indicated that the Suez Canal has maintained the rates of the crossing ships within normal average despite the international challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global trade movement, the chairman said.

"From January to August, 11,250 ships with 693 million tonnes of cargo have crossed the canal with revenues reaching 3.3 billion dollars," he added.

In August 2015, Egypt has inaugurated 8 billion dollars to the new extensions of the Suez Canal, aiming to boost the country's economy through its revenues which are Egypt's major sources of foreign currency besides tourism.

The Suez Canal is a major lifeline for global seaborne trade since it allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa, thereby reducing the sea voyage distance between Europe and India by about 7,000 km.

Some 12 percent of the world trade volume passes through the man-made canal. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)