Suez Canal revenues rose almost 16% y-o-y in April, coming in at USD 551.5 mn from the USD 476.2 mn recorded during the same month last year, the Suez Canal Authority said in a statement Thursday. The number of ships passing through the Canal also rose by some 4.8% to 1,814 ships, compared to 1,731 during the same month last year, the authority said.

A rebound from a dismal March: The rise in revenues from the Suez Canal — a key source of foreign currency that was already hit hard by the pandemic — came after the Ever Given mega container vessel blocked the waterway for six days at the end of March, causing the government to miss out on an estimated some USD 90 mn in revenues. Receipts fell to USD 439.4 mn during the month from USD 474.1 mn in February.

Receipts hit pre-covid levels at the end of last year: Suez Canal revenues were only fractionally below pre-pandemic levels in 4Q2020, coming in at USD 1.51 bn from USD 1.52 bn in the same period in 2019.

The recovery in receipts comes as an Ismailia court is due to announce two separate verdicts related to the Ever Given today: The first ruling is on the Suez Canal Authority’s (SCA) USD 600 mn compensation claim for the losses incurred by the mega vessel blocking the waterway, while the second is the court’s verdict on Ever Given owner Shoei Kisen’s appeal against the ship’s seizure, Bloomberg reports.

Could things go Shoei Kisen’s way? The ship owner’s lawyers argued at a court hearing yesterday that the SCA was at fault for allowing the ship to enter the canal in the midst of a storm and without tugboats accompanying it through the route, Reuters reports. The lawyers also argued that dislodging the Ever Given from the canal’s banks was part of the SCA’s responsibilities as per their traffic contract, meaning the entire ordeal should not be technically classified as a “salvage operation,” and the SCA should not be seeking compensation. The ship’s black box also reportedly showed the ship’s captain and the SCA’s pilot — who was on board the ship — were at odds over how to steer the ship through the canal, according to Al Shorouk.