Suez Canal revenues were up 12.2% in 2021, hitting a record USD 6.3 bn, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) boss Osama Rabie said, according to a cabinet statement. The record-breaking revenues last year followed a modest 3% y-o-y dip in 2020 to USD 5.61 bn, the result of the pandemic slowdown.

Last year’s performance came on the back of an all-time high net tonnage passing through the waterway, which increased 8.5% y-o-y to 1.27 bn tons, beating the previous all-time high set in 2020. The number of transiting ships was up 10% y-o-y to record 20.7k vessels, despite the Ever Given crisis that blocked the canal for almost a week in March.

The SCA worked to boost traffic through the canal last year, extending a range of incentives and reductions introduced in 2020 to counter the global trade slowdown due to covid-19.

Reminder: One of the principal threats to the canal looks to have been spiked by the Israeli government. The proposed oil transport corridor between the UAE and Israel that could have undermined the Suez Canal’s status as a major trade artery appears to have been blocked by the Israeli government last week.