270 ships transit Suez Canal in 6 days carrying 14.9m tonnes

Suez Canal traffic data showed that 270 ships transited the canal with a total load of 14.9m tonnes from 5-10 November.

An average of 45 ships transited the canal per day during that period, with an average load of 2.48m tonnes per day. The average load per ship was about 55,200 tonnes.

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

Two major Danish container ships, Morten Maersk and Mayview Maersk, transited the canal.

The number of vessels that passed coming from the west through the northern entrance was 135 vessels, with a daily average of 22.5 vessels, and a total load of 7m tonnes, recording a daily average of 1.17m tonnes.

Meanwhile, 135 ships transited the new channel coming from the south, with a daily average of 22.5 vessels, and a total load of 7.9m 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 3-5% per year.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced last week the fall of the canal’s revenues over fiscal year 2015/2016 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 on 5-10 November 2016: