310 ships transited Suez Canal during last week, total load of 18.53m tonnes

Suez Canal traffic data reported 310 ships transited the canal with a total load of 18.53m tonnes from 5 to 11 February 2016 compared to 312 ships with 17.77m tonnes the previous week.

On average 44.28 ships transited the canal per day during the past week with an average load of 2.65m tonnes per day compared to 44.57 ships per day and average of 2.54m tonnes the week before.

The average load per ship was 59,800 tonnes whereas the week before the average was 57,000 tonnes.

In 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 2.758m tonnes per day.

Last week, two major Danish ships transited the canal carrying 200,360 tonnes each, namely Maersk Madison and Maersk Mastral.

About 151 ships transited the canal heading south with a daily average of 21.6 ships compared to 152 ships in total and 21.7 ships on average the previous week.

Loads were estimated at 8.913m tonnes with daily average of 1.273m tonnes compared to 8.3m tonnes in total and 1.185m tonnes on average.

A total of 195 ships passed through the new channel coming from the east through the southern entrance, a daily average of 22.71 vessels compared to 160 ships throughout the week before and daily average of 22.85.

The total loads transiting the new canal was 9.622m tonnes when about 1.374m tonnes passed daily on average. The week before, the total loads were 9.637m tonnes and the daily average was 1.376m tonnes.

Cargo load is the main measure of shipping traffic in the Suez Canal, by which transit fees are calculated.

Suez Canal Data also reported that revenue declined throughout 2015 to $5.175m compared to $5.465m, a $290m drop. The decline resulted from increasing other currencies used for fees of transit against the dollar as well as the slowdown of the global economy and the crash of oil prices.

The following table shows traffic through the Suez Canal between 5 and 11 February 2016: