Maritime traffic on the Suez Canal is in free fall. With the increase in Houthi attacks in the Red Sea in retaliation for the war waged by Israel in the Gaza Strip, thirteen of the world’s largest shipowners, representing between them nearly 40% of the world market, have announced that they are diverting their ships to the Cape of good hope. Faced with this sudden diversion of commercial ships, a vital artery of Egypt is in danger, at the risk of plunging the country’s economy, already sluggish, into a state of anemia.
Normally, no less than 12% of world trade passes through this artery, 193 kilometers long and approximately 300 meters narrow, linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Around fifty cargo ships, tankers and other container ships cross the canal daily. With each passage, these commercial vessels pay a tax to the Egyptian authorities, representing an essential source of foreign currency for the country.
In January, revenues decreased by 40% compared to 2023, said the director of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Admiral Osama Rabie, specifying that the number of ships crossing the passage increased. dropped by 30%. Still difficult to quantify, the shortfall for the Egyptian economy promises to be significant. For comparison, when, in 2021, the container ship Ever-Given had blocked the Suez Canal for just six days, the SCA had recorded between 12 and 15 million dollars (approximately 11.1 to 13.9 million euros) in daily losses.
With the bypass of the Suez Canal, Egypt must revise downwards its revenue forecasts for 2024, which the government had estimated at more than 10 billion dollars. Over the period 2022-2023, the SCA had in fact recorded record revenues of around $9 billion, following the widening of the canal inaugurated with great fanfare in 2021.
Stocks are piling up
So, the authorities are doing everything to reassure. “The navigation continues and has not stopped despite the many challenges”, insists Admiral Osama Rabie, who is trying by all means to revive the confidence of shipping companies. The SCA now offers services “unpublished” to its customers, committing to providing “all navigation, repair and maintenance services that passing vessels require in the event of a breakdown or emergency situation”details a press release published on January 22, “to ensure the regularity of navigation in the canal and the sustainability of global supply chains”.
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