Suez Canal revenues hit all-time record with $9.4b

The Suez Canal has seen all-time annual revenues of $9.4 billion during the FY 2022/2023, with the highest rate of transit, 25,887 ships, and the largest annual net tonnage for a fiscal year, 1.5 billion tonnes, according to statistics announced on Wednesday by Head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Osama Rabie.

Over the past four years, the canal achieved a qualitative leap in the results of its work, despite the successive global crises, namely the pandemic, and the ensued global recession, and the Russian-Ukrainian war, Rabie said.

This success has been the outcome of strategic planning, hard work, continuous development works, and the adoption of flexible pricing and marketing policies, he added.

Meanwhile, SCA offers a leading model in adopting the state of the art management and operation methods, applying integration mechanisms among all elements of maritime transport to achieve the aspired goals of its integrated vision and ambitious strategy 2030, he noted.

The authority’s strategy aspires to maintain safe and sustainable flow of global trade through the vital water way, via an integrated package of technological solutions, logistical services, marine activities and value-added industries supported by an intensive human experience of more than 150 years, the SCA chief noted.

According to Rabei, the development strategy 2030 is based on several axes, foremost of which is developing the canal’s navigational course, modernisation of the authority’s marine fleet, maximising the utilisation of assets and diversifying sources of income.

Meanwhile, Rabei said that they are completing aprogramme for modernising the authority’s marine fleet, adding new units, which include dredgers, accompanying tugboats, rescue tugs, marine yachts, ferries, and others.

The SCA head quashed allegations of a decline in navigational safety through the Suez Canal. The accident rate in the canal is hardly 0.09 per cent, which is so tiny compared to the annual transit rates of the canal, which exceed 25,000 ships annually.

In the meantime, he said that the canal has made great strides towards maximising utilisation of the authority’s assets through several parallel steps, which resulted in the success of 5 companies out of 7 companies in achieving profits.