334 ships transit Suez Canal last week carrying 17.4m tonnes

Suez Canal traffic data showed that 334 ships transited the canal from 14 to 20 October, with a total load of 17.4m tonnes.

An average of 47.7 ships transited the canal per day during that period, with an average load of 2.49m tonnes per day. The average load per ship was about 52,100 tonnes during that period.

Compared to July 2015, before the inauguration of the New Suez Canal, the average daily number of transiting vessels totalled 47 vessels, with an average load of 2.758 million tonnes per day.

The major container ship BARZAN transited the canal en route from Malaysia to the United Kingdom.

The number of vessels that passed coming from the west through the northern entrance during that period was 163 vessels, with a daily average of 23.28 vessels, and a total load of 8.14m tonnes, recording a daily average of 1.16m tonnes.

Meanwhile, 171 ships transited the new canal coming from the south, with a daily average of 24.43 vessels, and a total load of 9.25m tonnes, recording a daily average of 1.32m tonnes.

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

The Suez Canal Authority has been in talks with representatives of a number of shipping lines to discuss the authority’s proposal to pay transit fees in advance in the form of a deposit for a discount of 3% per year.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced last week the fall of the canal’s revenues over the fiscal year 2015/206 to $5.1bn—a drop of 4.5% from fiscal year 2014/2015, in which revenues amounted to $5.4bn.

The following table shows traffic through the Suez Canal from 14 to 20 October: