275 ships transit Suez Canal in 6 days

Suez Canal traffic data showed that 275 ships transited the canal, with a total load of 16.8m tonnes, from 8-13 October.

An average of 45.83 ships passed through the canal per day during that period, with a daily average load of 2.8m tonnes. The average load per ship was about 61,000 tonnes.

Before the inauguration of the New Suez Canal in July 2015, the average daily number of transiting vessels totalled 47 vessels, with an average load of 2.758m tonnes per day.

The major Danish container ship Marit Maersk transited the canal en route from Malaysia to Morocco.

The number of vessels that passed through the New Suez Canal from the northern entrance was 140, with a daily average of 23.33 vessels, and a total load of 8.4m tonnes, recording a daily average of 1.4m tonnes.

Meanwhile, 135 ships transited through the southern entrance, with a daily average of 22.5 vessels, and a total load of 8.4m tonnes, recording a daily average of 1.4m tonnes as well.

Cargo load is the main measure of shipping traffic in the Suez Canal and the calculated transit fees.

Last week, the Suez Canal Authority held a meeting with representatives from a number of shipping lines to discuss the authority’s proposal of paying transit fees in advance in the form of deposit for a discount of 3% per year.

Last week, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced that the canal’s revenues over fiscal year (FY) 2015/2016 reached $5.1bn—a drop of 4.5% from FY 2014/2015, in which revenues amounted to $5.4bn.

The following table shows traffic through the Suez Canal from 8-13 October 2016: