320 ships transit Suez Canal with cargo load of 16.4m tonnes in week of 11 to 17 March

Suez Canal traffic data revealed that over the last week—extending from 11to 17 March 2016—320 ships transited the Suez Canal with a total cargo load of 16.4m tonnes.

The average number of ships that transited the canal per day reached 45.71 ships, with an average cargo load of 2.34m tonnes.

The average cargo load per ship reached 51.250 thousand tonnes during the past period.

Compared to July 2015, the month prior to the inauguration of the Suez Canal, there was an average of 47 ships that transited the canal daily, with an average cargo load of 2.758 million tonnes per day.

In the past week, two Danish container ships—the “Moren Maersk” and “Munkebo Maersk”—transited the channel with a cargo of 200,360 tonnes.

There were 170 ships that transited the canal from the western entrance—coming from the Port Said entrance in the North—a daily average of 24.3 ships. The total cargo load reached 9.1m tonnes, a daily average of 1.28m tones.

There were 150 ships that transited the canal from the east–coming from the southern entrance of the Suez Canal—a daily average of 21.42 ships. The total cargo load was recorded at 7.3m tonnes, a daily average of 1.04 million tonnes.

Cargo load is the main standard to calculate the volume of trade in the Suez Canal, as transit fees are calculated by tonnage.

In 2015, the revenue collected through the Suez Canal declined to $5.175bn, compared to a reported revenue of $5.465bn in 2014.  The decline of $290m is thought to be due to the rise Special Drawing Rights (SDR) against the US dollar, in addition to the drop in oil prices and the slowdown of the global economy.